Julie P. Gavin, registered nurse

Julie P. Gavin, a retired registered nurse who enjoyed the outdoors, died of cancer Tuesday at her Lutherville home. She was 67. The daughter of J. Louis Gavin, an insurance executive, and Julia P. Gavin, a homemaker, Julie Perry Gavin was born in Baltimore and raised on West Piccadilly Road in West Towson.

She was a 1967 graduate of the Bryn Mawr School. She attended what is now Lasell College in Newton, Mass., and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1983 from the University of Maryland.

She also obtained a master’s degree in public health from what is now the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

From 1995 to 1999, Ms Gavin worked for Dr. Bernard McGibbon, a Lutherville plastic surgeon, and also worked as a nurse at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. In 2003 she moved to Belgrade, Mont., where she worked at the Hospice of Southwest Montana until 2012.

While living in Belgrade, she enjoyed fly fishing, trail riding, skiing and taking long walks with her dog, Frieda.

She returned to the Baltimore area in 2014 and settled in Lutherville.

Ms. Gavin was an animal lover and volunteered at Chesapeake Therapeutic Riding, an Abingdonbased equestrian organization that works with children with disabilities. “Julie was a selfless caregiver, devoted mother and grandmother, and a consummate friend to many,” longtime friend Lucy Michaels wrote in an email.

“She had a great sense of humor and could be quite feisty! She kept this sense of humor throughout her entire illness, easing our sorrow as we watched her lose her courageous battle,” wrote Ms. Michaels, who lives in Bethany Beach, Del. Services are private. Ms. Gavin is survived by two sons, Walker B. Willse of Nashville, Tenn., and Michael G. Willse of Houston; a daughter, Perry Willse Shutt of Baltimore; six granddaughters; and several nieces and nephews. Marriages to David Willse and Mark Fuch ended in divorce.