Kathleen Devine
Groton — Kathleen Palm Devine of Noank and formerly Hartford, died peacefully Jan. 29, 2016, after a brief illness. She was surrounded by her family.
She was the wife of Joseph D. Devine III, who predeceased her, and the daughter of Marjorie and Charles Palm.
Kathleen was a passionate civil servant who served as treasurer of the City of Hartford from 1998 to 2011, during which time she advocated for the city’s pensioners and workers. Hers was a hallmark of clean government and accountability. Her financial acumen was acute, and she consistently fought conventional wisdom and was proved right on numerous occasions, such as insisting the city divest from Enron long before it crashed.
Before her long tenure, Kathleen served as deputy treasurer to Denise Nappier, when Nappier was city treasurer, and worked for State Treasurer Frank Borges. Before her career in finance, Kathleen was a news reporter for the United Press International in Maine, a writer for the Hartford Advocate and served for many years on the Hartford Courant’s editorial board, where she was known as an outspoken champion for women and other marginalized voices.
Kathleen’s personal investment in the city was legendary: she was instrumental in raising the funds for the new Artists’ Collective building, she established the city’s monument to victims of the 1944 circus fire, and gave countless hours of her stewardship to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center board.
She was a graduate of Manhattanville College, where she started the college’s chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). It was merely the beginning of her long advocacy for justice, civic engagement, and speaking truth to power. All who were privileged to know this deep, provocative, glamorous and generous-hearted woman will forever be changed by her passion.
She leaves to mourn her incalculable loss her daughter, Caitlin Palm and her husband, Timothy Brown, of Boston; her stepdaughter, Jaime McKinley and husband, Jason McKinley, of Amston; and stepson, Joseph and Tamara Devine of Marlborough. She will be forever missed by her brothers, Robert Palm of Noank and Brian Palm and his wife, Mary Stokes, of Dublin, Ireland; and sister Christine Palm and her husband, James Baker, of Chester. Kathleen was a devoted grandmother to Theo and Eva Palm-Brown, Jackson and Connor McKinley, and Dylan, Christopher, Braeden and Calvin Devine; and she was a loving and devoted aunt who encouraged irreverence, intellectual confidence and liberal use of cursing in her nieces and nephews, Colin Baker, James Golden, Danny Golden, Alicia Palm, Michael Palm, Lucia Palm, Siena Palm, Seamus Palm Baker, Brendan Palm, and Dominic Palm. Kathleen was loved by her Odlum cousins and their many children.
She was predeceased by her brother, Barry Palm, and was beloved by Barry’s wife, Barbara Cantor Palm.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5, at St. Patrick’s Church, 32 E. Main St., Mystic. There are no calling hours.
For those wishing to leave an online note or message to the family, please visit www. mysticfuneralhome.com.