Sarah (Sadie) O’Kane of Villa Chaleur, Bathurst, and formerly of North Teteagouche, passed away October 1, 2006 at her Villa Chaleur home (3 days before her 93rd birthday).
She is survived by four daughters – Mary O’Kane Ritchie (David) of North Teteagouche, Ellie Haché (Fernand) of Bathurst, Sheila O’Kane of Petit Rocher, and Miki O’Kane (Fred Carmichael) of Inuvik, NT.
Sadie was born in Millerton, on the Miramichi, October 4, 1913, the youngest child of Michael Alexander Young of Baie de Vin and Sarah Conchessa McDonald Young of Barnaby River. She grew up in Bathurst and graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1931. She attended and graduated from Provincial Normal School in 1933. Her first teaching assignment was North Teteagouche where she met and married her husband, John E O’Kane.
She also taught at Superior School (where she was acting Principal during the war years), at Crossroads School, and at South Bathurst School. She continued to attend evening and summer classes herself, earning her Bachelor of Elementary Education from Université de Moncton in 1974.
She was a member of the first Board of Directors of the Holy Family Credit Union (now, Caisse Populaire Chaleur, St Peter’s Avenue, Bathurst). She has been a member of the Catholic Women’s League since 1940. She was also a member of the New Brunswick Retired Teachers Association and the Bathurst Chapter of the Irish-Canadian Cultural Association.
She was predeceased by both an infant daughter, Kathleen Rebecca, in 1941, and by her husband in 1976. She was also predeceased by all four brothers - Daniel and baby Lawrence of Bathurst, John (Jack) of Dalhousie, and Rev. Edmund Young, CSB, of Toronto, as well as by both sisters - Margaret and Mary Bridget of Bathurst.
Sadie will rest at her North Teteagouche home, 3202 North Teteagouche Road, Monday and Tuesday evenings, October 2nd and 3rd, from 7 to 9 PM. A requiem Mass will be held at at 11:00 am wednesday at Holy family church in West Bathurst with Fr Greg Culligan officiating and Joseph MacDonald as organist and musical director. Interment will follow, in the Parish Cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of Elhatton`s Funeral Home (www.elhatton.com), Bathurst.
For anyone wishing to send tokens of sympathy, prayers or donations to a favourite charity, or to the Holy Family Parish emergency fund, would be preferred.