Foundation returns a favor to Lowell legend Mickey O’Keefe
LOWELL — Lowell Police Sgt. Mickey O’Keefe in 2005 safely disarmed a man who had already drawn blood from a woman whose neck he was holding a knife to. A year later, O’Keefe spent two hours face to face with a man who had a gun to his own head, talking him into not killing himself.
He won accolades in Hollywood for playing himself in the Oscar-winning movie “The Fighter,” about a man he trained to box — Irish Micky Ward.
And he did it all as his wife Donna and his family cared for their children in Lowell and a sister with a disability.
But now, in retirement, and as his wife continues to work daily shifts as a waitress at the Four Sisters Owl Diner on Appleton Street, O’Keefe is facing Alzheimer’s disease.
The family that has helped so many Lowellians could use a hand themselves. And The Durkin Foundation of Lowell is lending that hand in the form of a $35,000 donation.
“They have raised kids that weren’t even their own. They’ve been devout people for so many years and they never ask for help,” said Matt Durkin, the foundation’s executive director. “It’s nice to be able to help such an amazing family that has done so much for so many people for so many years.”
The funding will provide a year of caretaker services for O’Keefe, who was diagnosed with a form of dementia called primary progressive aphasia, according to The Durkin Foundation. Donna and Mickey have three sons and grandchildren in the double digits, in addition to other “children” in Lowell whom they helped raise.
One of those children, Keith Dillon, O’Keefe’s “fourth son,” told The Sun in 2011 that the O’Keefes took him in when both of his parents died before he was 10.
“He didn’t know me at all,” Dillon said. “But he told me he was going to bring me to play football with his sons. I didn’t really believe it. I was used to adults saying things without actually following through.”
“It wasn’t just me,” Dillon said in 2011. “There were so many other kids coming and going. The O’Keefes’ house on Gibson Street had a revolving door. If there was ever a kid that needed help, that family would never turn them away.”
O’Keefe told The Sun in 2011 that his work training boxers like Ward was largely done because boxing had helped him so much in his own youth.
“Boxing helped me stay off the streets as a kid,” O’Keefe said. “And I’ve seen it do the same for a lot of boys and girls over the years.”
Donna O’Keefe is the matriarch of the family and the primary caregiver for her sister, who has an intellectual disability. Donna O’Keefe and the rest of her family provide full-time support for her.
Donna O’Keefe’s caregiving demands expanded after her husband was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, according to the release. This form of dementia slowly erodes an individual’s ability to communicate. The neurodegenerative disease is caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration and is a fastacting disease. The disease carries with it a normal life expectancy of less than ten years, according to The Durkin Foundation.
With Mickey O’Keefe’s decline in health, the O’Keefes have needed to bring on a full-time caretaker to assist while Donna O’Keefe continues to work at the diner.
“The tremendous expense has left the O’Keefes in need of financial support due to the increased cost and amount of around-the-clock care,” a press release from The Durkin Foundation states. “Mickey deserves the best care he can get and the Durkin Foundation is proud to step in and support the O’Keefe family in their time of need. … We are so honored to support this family who has done so much for the community and now it is time for the community to give back.”
After accepting his police department honors in 2006, Mickey O’Keefe was surrounded by family at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium as he did something else he was well-known for: He blamed his fellow officers for his heroics.
“It’s not anything to do with me. It’s the people I’m with,” Mickey O’Keefe said at the time. “I wasn’t alone.”
The Durkin Family Foundation is now making sure the O’Keefe family still is not alone.
“The O’Keefes are lifelong Lowellians who have made tremendous impacts on the local community,” the release states. “They have been extremely selfless helping wherever they can, whether it was taking in a child in need, coaching boxing or keeping the community safe as a Lowell Police officer. Now they are in need of our assistance due to the impact of Alzheimer’s disease.”