Katherine Moore Keeley, M.D.

Katherine Moore Keeley, M.D., a Sarasota pediatrician and devoted advocate for vulnerable children, died March 13, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida. She was 73. Born May 26, 1952, in Louisville, Kentucky, she was the daughter of Rogers Thomas Moore and Katherine Hogan Elliott. Dr. Keeley devoted her life to the care and protection of children. A pediatrician in Sarasota since 1990, she practiced in several pediatric offices throughout the community before joining First Physicians Group in 2015, where she continued her work at FPG Pediatrics at Lakewood Ranch until 2026. She served for fifteen years as Medical Director of Sarasota’s Child Protection Center, where she worked tirelessly to advocate for children who had experienced abuse or neglect. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital she held numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Staff, and served on virtually every service committee during her decades of service. In 2017 she received Sarasota Memorial’s Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor typically bestowed near the end of a physician’s career. True to form, Dr. Keeley continued practicing medicine for nine more years. Her colleagues respected her rigorous standards, deep sense of responsibility, and unwavering commitment to the well-being of her patients. Dr. Keeley retired only nine days before her passing. She often told friends and family that “work is my happy place,” and those who loved her may take comfort in knowing that she continued caring for patients for as long as she possibly could. Dr. Keeley attended Hollins University in Virginia and later earned her medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. During her studies she spent a year in Paris studying art history, an experience that deepened a lifelong love of culture and literature. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from 1979 to 1981. It is, of course, difficult for any obituary to capture the essence of a person, but the task is doubly hard for Katherine Keeley, a woman who, beyond her professional career, contained vast multitudes. She was a wordsmith with an encyclopedic knowledge of literature and poetry, as well as art, film, and architecture. Since her teenage years she kept journals filled with quotations and passages that moved her, writing down lines from novels and films, verses of poetry, song lyrics, and aphorisms or sayings that she loved. Dr. Keeley’s relentlessly cheerful optimism and gentle smile were not merely a professional façade, she was the same person at home with her family and among her friends. Colleagues and patients often noticed that she was always singing or humming, an unconscious habit that seemed meant to bring light to those around her. Fiercely devoted to her children, she sacrificed in countless ways to support and guide them. Katherine had a remarkable way of making each person she encountered, not just her children and grandchildren, but her friends, colleagues, patients, and coworkers, feel as though they too were part of her most intimate internal world, a place of safety, support, guidance, and love. And yet, despite this openness, she was also a deeply private person. Friends sometimes joked that she shopped at Publix at seven in the morning, often wearing sunglasses, so that a quick run for milk would not turn into a series of informal pediatric consultations in the grocery aisle. Even in her final weeks, she remained far more interested in the lives and concerns of others than in her own challenges. She is survived by her children, Samuel Blaine Keeley Jr. of Nuremberg, Germany, Katherine Wakefield McDonald of Lakeland, Florida, and John Clement Keeley of Marietta, Georgia, grandson Adam Keeley, and four granddaughters, as well as her brother, Rogers Thomas Moore, and her nieces, Diane Moore Marsh and Sarah Moore Watkins, both of Sarasota. In keeping with her wishes, no funeral, memorial service, or celebration of life will be held. After making this decision she said, “I hate funerals, and I don’t want to go to one, even in death.” This is perhaps in keeping with her more private side. Her family recognizes that this may disappoint the many friends, patients, and colleagues whose lives she touched so profoundly over decades of service, and they invite those who wish to honor her memory to share their remembrances of Katherine Keeley on the tribute page accompanying this obituary. A steadfast advocate for Sarasota Memorial Hospital throughout her career, Dr. Keeley asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation. Those wishing to honor her memory may dedicate their gift in her name at https://smhf.org/donate/. In the end, she lived exactly as she wished, caring for children, serving her community, and finding joy in the work she loved.

Tributes

Katherine Moore Keeley, M.D.

May 26, 1952 - March 13, 2026