lit a candle 10d agoRead about Gwendolyn Kearse this morning over coffee and it took me right back to 1996, sitting in the pediatric ward at MUSC while my son had his tonsils out. Never knew her name then, she wasn't on our floor, but the obituary describes exactly the kind of nurse who got us through that week, the ones who talk to a scared four year old like he matters. 94 years of that. That's a whole life given to other people's worst days.
Their story
Gwendolyn McMillan Kearse was a retired pediatric nurse from the Charleston, South Carolina area who spent decades caring for children and their families at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She died on October 8, 2026, at the age of 94, after what her family described as a long…
Gwendolyn McMillan Kearse was a retired pediatric nurse from the Charleston, South Carolina area who spent decades caring for children and their families at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She died on October 8, 2026, at the age of 94, after what her family described as a long and fruitful life.
According to the obituary published by James A. Dyal Funeral Home of Summerville, South Carolina, Kearse worked for many years as a Pediatric Head Nurse at MUSC, one of the state's largest teaching hospitals, before continuing her service into retirement as a volunteer at Summerville Hospital. Those who knew her described her as fiercely independent, compassionate, patient and devoted, a woman who moved through the roles of daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and finally great grandmother, the last of which earned her the affectionate family nickname Gigi.
Her professional life mattered to the thousands of young patients and anxious parents who passed through her ward over the years. A head nurse in pediatrics carries particular weight in a hospital, steadying frightened children and their families during some of the hardest days of their lives, and the tribute from her funeral home credited her with leaving a mark that could not be overstated. Outside of the hospital, she was known for a full personal life: she loved to travel with friends and family, kept up a tradition of Black Friday shopping trips with her daughter and granddaughter, and was a devoted beach goer who treated Edisto Beach as a second home.
Kearse was predeceased by her husband, Karl Kearse, her daughter Nancy Lynn, her grandson Nathan Kearse, and her parents, Perry Lee and Hermine McMillan, as well as her brothers Joe and Ronnie McMillan. She is survived by her daughter, Lee Ann Johnson, her son, Richard Kearse, her granddaughters Ashley Sacco and Maloree Kearse, her great granddaughters Ella, Lila and Penelope Sacco, and her sister, Harriet Hare.
No cause of death has been made public. Her family has arranged a memorial gathering and service at the James A. Dyal Funeral Home in Summerville, South Carolina, where friends and relatives are expected to gather to remember a woman whose working life was defined by care for other people's children and whose personal life was anchored in family, travel and the South Carolina coast she loved.
Kearse was not a public figure in the national sense, and no Wikipedia page or national news coverage of her life exists. This page is based on her published funeral home obituary, which is the only detailed public record of her life currently available.
Biography adapted from News reports and the sources cited on this page; death reported by Post and Courier.
