Arizona Remembers: BACK
Ellen Loughlin 56 Tucson
Ellen Agnes Loughlin was born on March 23, 1950 in Tachikowa, Japan to a father who then served in the United States Air Force. She was a graduate of Westhampton Beach High School in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, NY, and completed her undergraduate work at Stony Brook University, NY. Her postgraduate degree in Education was completed at the University of California in Los Angeles, CA. An accomplished musician and artist, Ellen had many interests including, skiing, ice-skating, swimming, and horseback riding. She will perhaps best be remembered by her strong Catholic faith, as well as her life-long love of children, and how selflessly-devoted she was to all children, particularly her third grade students.
Loughlin died May 19, 2006, after battling Lyme disease for decades."People in Tucson grew to know and love the kind, generous person simply known as "Aunt Ellen" to so many."
Obituary published in the Arizona Daily Star in June, 2006
Pat Pepper
58 Scottsdale
Pat Pepper grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind. At 17, she left home to attend Loretta Heights College, an all-girls school in Denver, CO. There she was an avid skier who graduated in 1971 with a double degree in sociology and psychology. Pat served as West Palm Beach, FL mayor from 1988 to 1989, after her initial election to the city commission in 1986. She was one of the first women to have a powerful political voice in the city. She then became housing and community development director for the Florida Department of Community Affairs. After Hurricane Andrew, she lobbied for what she thought south Miami-Dade County needed: a five-year, $27 million rebuilding plan. A year later, she was named director of the Community Partnership for the Homeless in Miami-Dade. In 1995, she attended the groundbreaking for what she considered a major personal triumph: a downtown Miami homeless center now recognized as a national model. Through all this, Pat's health continued to decline. In 1993, she was misdiagnosed with ALS. After tireless searching for an accurate answer; in 1998, she finally found that she actually suffered from late-stage Lyme disease and Babesiosis. After a valiant effort to treat her diseases; eventually, she became a quadriplegic and moved to Arizona to live with her daughter.
Hear her story in her own wordsPepper died August 16, 2003, of complications stemming from Lyme disease and Babesiosis.
"She had style and she had beauty and she had charm. She had connections and she had softness all at the same time." - Will Ray
Obituary published in The Palm Beach Post in August, 2003
Basil Roebuck
75 Phoenix
Dr. Basil Roebuck was born in Darlington, Durham County, England in 1923. He obtained his MRCPsyc as a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1945. After house appointments, Basil served in the Royal Air Force and then spent one year in general practice before becoming a registrar in psychiatry at Leeds. In 1953 he emigrated to the United States, holding various positions before returning to Virginia to private psychiatric practice. He was a former associate professor in psychiatry and neurology; ultimately becoming president of the medical staff and achieving an outstanding reputation for his work in clinical and forensic psychiatry. A proficient speaker and lecturer to students and lay audiences alike, Basil was also an able pianist and organist with many other cultural and artistic interests.
Roebuck died February 22, 1998
Obituary published in the British Medical Journal in May, 1998
Ken Welch
82 Scottsdale
Kenneth Welch was a Valley civic leader and a former publisher of the Phoenix magazine. He spent his time with family, friends, entertaining and traveling By the late 1980s, Ken was hospitalized with diabetes and later he was diagnosed with Lyme disease. After undergoing open-heart surgery; his health continued to decline into dementia and pneumonia. Finally, congestive heart failure ended his life. Welch died in 2004, from many complications stemming from a 15 year battle with Lyme disease.
"I was never prepared emotionally for the pain and frustration of watching my beloved husband face the fight of his life.” -Fern Stewart Welch
Tribute published in the East Valley Tribune in 2006
Unknown male child
14 months Fatal Cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Family Clusters -- Three States, 2003 In mid-August, a male child aged 14 months was taken to a community health clinic after 1 day of fever (103.7º F [39.8º C]), with a maculopapular rash, including the palms and soles, and thick white exudates on the tongue. Chest radiographic evaluation showed a possible right lower lobe infiltrate. The child was treated with intramuscular cefotaxime, acetominophen, and antifungal medication for presumptive thrush. The next day, the child visited the clinic with nausea, vomiting, anorexia, and dehydration. The patient was transferred to a referral hospital for treatment of pneumonia, roseola infantum, and thrush; on admission, the patient had a temperature of 105.7º F (41º C). After 3 days, he was transferred to a tertiary care hospital with a diagnosis of sepsis and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. The patient was treated with IV ceftazidime and vancomycin.
Laboratory findings included an elevated WBC count (16.2 x 109 cells/L), thrombocytopenia (46 x 109 platelets/L), and elevated levels of AST (291 U/L) and ALT (99 U/L). Six days after initial treatment, the child died of pulmonary hemorrhage; an autopsy was not performed. A serum specimen obtained 5 days before the child's death tested negative by IFA for IgM and IgG antibodies reactive with R. rickettsii; however, R. rickettsii DNA was amplified from serum by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. A serum specimen obtained from a brother, aged 5 years, showed IgM and IgG antibodies reactive to R. rickettsii, indicating recent exposure. The children lived in a rural environment with low shrubs and grasses and frequently interacted with free-roaming dogs with ticks; however, neither child had a history of recent tick bite.
CDC-MMWR May 21, 2004 / 53(19);407-410
"I shall pass this way but once, therefore any kindness I can show or any help I can give, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again."- Author Unknown
© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project
