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Catherine "Kate" (Donahue) Ellis DeCoursey
(1858 - 1938)
| STATE OF KANSAS
State Board of Health � Division Vital Statistics |
STANDARD
CERTIFICATE OF DEATH |
205 41183 | |
Township ___________ Registered No. 45187
or
City Kansas City No. 444 N 17th Street St., ______Ward
(If death occurred in a hospital or institution, give its NAME instead of street and number)
2. FULL NAME: Mrs Kate De Coursey
(a) Residence (Usual place of abode). No. 444 N 17th Street St. _____Ward.
Length of residence in city or town where death occurred 16 yrs.1 __mos. __ds.
Was deceased ever a member of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States? ___
PERSONAL AND STATISTICAL PARTICULARS
3. SEX Female
4. COLOR OR RACE White
5. Single, Married, Widowed, or Divorced (write the word) Widow
5a. If married, widowed, or divorced HUSBAND of (or) WIFE of Widow 2
6. DATE OF BIRTH (month, day, and year) 1858-6-2
7. AGE 79 Years 10 Months 3 Days
OCCUPATION
8. Trade, profession, or particular kind of work done, as spinner, sawyer, bookkeeper, etc. Hous wife
9. Industry or business in which work was done, as silk mill, saw mill, bank, etc. ____________
10. Date deceased last worked at this occupation (month and year) 2 year
11. Total time (years) spent in this occupation _________
12. BIRTHPLACE (city or town) Muncie (State or country) Kansas 3
FATHER
13. NAME Unknown
14. BIRTHPLACE (city or town) Unknown (State or country) Unknown 4
MOTHER
15. MAIDEN NAME Unknown
16. BIRTHPLACE (city or town) Unknown (State or country) Unknown 5
17. Informant Mrs Gertrude Guilfoil 6
(Address) 1518 Tauromee
18. BURIAL, CREMATION, OR REMOVAL
Place St John C Date 4-7 , 19 38
19. UNDERTAKER Daniel Bros
(Address) 1536 Minn Av
20. Filed APR 6 1938 Howard Payne Registrar.
MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH
21. DATE OF DEATH (month, day, and year) April 5 , 19 38 ,
22. I HEREBY CERTIFY, That I attended deceased from March 31 , 19 38 , to April 5 , 19 38 . I last saw h er alive on April 5 , 19 38 , death is said to have occurred on the date stated above at 1:00 P. m.
The principal cause of death and related causes of importance in order of onset were as follows:
Chr. myocarditis 7 Date of onset ?
General Arteriosclerosis 8 Date of onset ?
Terminal Hypostatic Pneumonia 9 Date of onset 4-4-38
Contributory causes of importance not related to principal cause:
Senility 10 Date of onset ____
Name of operation ______ Date of ____
What test confirmed diagnosis? _______ Was there an autopsy? no
23. If death was due to external causes (violence) fill in also the following: [...]
24. Was disease or injury in any way related to occupation of deceased? no
(Signed) Francis S. Carey , M.D.
(Address) KC Kansas.
1 Census records and other sources indicate that Kate lived in Wyandotte County, Kansas pretty much her whole life. She had lived in Kansas City since at least 1900, probably since her marriage to John Ellis in about 1887. It is however possible that she had been living at 444 N 17th Street for 16 years.
2 Kate was widowed twice. Her first husband, John Ellis, died in 1900, and Edwin E. DeCoursey, her second husband, died in 1932.
3 Muncie is a small town in Wyandotte County.
4 There has been some diffucilty in determining the identity of Kate's parents. At this point I believe her father was Daniel Donahue, born about 1823 in Ireland. He was a private in the 1st Regiment, Kansas Infantry during the Civil War, and died at Trenton, Tennessee in 1862.
5 Kate's mother's name was Ellen, her maiden name is unknown. After her first husband, Daniel Donahue (Kate's father) died in the Civil War, she remarried to Patrick Downs. Ellen is buried in the Ellis family plot.
6 Gertrude (Ellis) Guilfoil is Kate's daughter from her marriage to John Ellis.
7 Myocarditis is an inflammation or degeneration of the heart muscle. It causes symptoms of heart failure, which may mimic a heart attack. It is an uncommon disorder most often caused by viral infection, but may also appear as a primary disease in adults or as a degenerative disease of old age. Kate's myocarditis was chronic.
8 Arteriosclerosis is generic term for several diseases in which the arterial wall becomes thickened and loses elasticity. In a strict medical sense, it defines the formation of plaques of cholesterol, platelets, fibrin, and other substances on the arterial walls which leads to progressive degrees of blockage of arterial circulation. Vascular disease, which affects the brain, heart, kidneys, other vital organs, and extremities, is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA and in most Western countries. Factors which may influence the build-up of plaque on the arterial walls include heredity, smoking, high blood pressure, age, a type A personality, an inactive lifestyle and high cholesterol diet.
9 Hypostatic pneumonia is linked to elderly or weak persons, and occurs when an immobile person lies in the same position for such long periods of time that gravity accelerates fluid congestion in one area of the lungs, increasing the risk of infection. It is a very serious complication which can be prevented by pulmonary physical therapy and changing the patient's position in bed regularly.
10 In the strict definition of the word, senility is the mental and physical deterioration associated with old age. In common usage, however, the term refers only to mental deterioration, today more often called dementia. Until the late 1960s, arteriosclerosis was viewed as the major cause of senile dementia. This view changed when researchers established that large amounts of fatty deposits could be found in the brain's arterial walls of both demented and normal elderly individuals.
