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Michael Joseph Kehoe, 78, Eldorado, N.M.
Obituaries · September 25, 2024
In the early morning of July 16, 1945, while the fetus that would be named Michael Joseph Kehoe lay in utero, his mother, Dorothy Dabney Kehoe, was violently thrown from her bed in Socorro, New Mexico, by the shock wave produced by the Trinity Atomic Bomb.
In the mid-morning of Sept. 18, 2024, Michael died of complications from multiple ailments in his home in Eldorado at Santa Fe.
Michael’s Feb. 16, 1946, birth was in St. Louis, Mo., but soon found his family was a traveling circus. Albuquerque; Santa Fe; Tulsa; Chattanooga; Waveland, Miss.; Los Angeles; Clearwater, Fla.; and Des Moines were all part of pre-, primary and secondary schooling for him.
During and after attending the University of Iowa, Mike worked as a lab tech and then at the U. of I. Hospital School caring for patients with various challenges.
After a time driving a city bus, he became a driver and eventually acting director for Johnson County Seats, a job that returned him to a rewarding position of caring for others.
Mike was content living as a townie in Iowa City until the evening he met Ruth Kazue Komuro on the dance floor at Gabe’s. It was not long before they married and moved to West Branch, Iowa.
Over the decades she gardened, made beautiful, beaded jewelry, was known as a stellar cook and played ukulele in the Johnson County Ukulele Social Club. While not working, Mike produced a massive collection of art, both works on paper and constructed in three-dimensional pieces. He never attempted to market his art; instead seeing his creations as his children.
The long loving and creative marriage to Ruthie ended with her death in 2017 at the age of 78. Aloha.
Together, they are survived by Mike’s brother, Phillip, and wife Jacinta Hart Kehoe of Santa Fe; stepmother Fumiko Michaels (Dave) of Chicago; Rob Kehoe (Jen) of Madison Wis.; Ruth’s children: Leah Lovelace (Whit) of Iowa City, Philip Kirk (Diana) of Iowa City, Brian Kirk of Milwaukee, two grandsons, Nicholas and Alex Lovelace of Chicago, and Ruth’s sister Beth Miura (Calvin) of Hawaii.
The two of them leave a legacy of love and caring among the many family members and friends, both living and not that they touched during their lives.
Mike’s family would like to thank the staffs of Del Corozon Hospice, Corozon Concierge and Santa Fe Mobile MD for their care and compassion in Mike’s final days.
A gathering of Michael’s friends will be held in Mike’s studio in Eldorado at Santa Fe and an internment and celebration of both Mike and Ruth will take place in Iowa City in the spring of 2025.
Memorials in their names may be directed to The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, The Southern Poverty Law Center or a charity of your choice.
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