OBITUARY Karen Cooney Duncan February 6, 1956 – December 7, 2018 Karen Cooney Duncan, a nurse who held clinical and administrative posts at five New Orleans medical centers before becoming a lawyer in mid-career, died Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, at her Uptown home of complications of breast cancer. She was 62.
Karen Cooney Duncan’s ancestors came to New Orleans in the 1740s. She grew up in Metairie and graduated from Charity Hospital’s School of Nursing in 1979, and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Regents College of the University of the State of New York. After starting in Charity Hospital’s emergency room and recovery room, where she was night charge nurse, she was nursing director of Southern Surgery Center, an outpatient surgery center; head nurse at Touro Infirmary; and the nurse in charge of insurance and Medicare management at Mercy and Southern Baptist hospitals.
She also was Mercy’s risk manager. After 15 years of clinical and management experience, Mrs. Duncan enrolled in Loyola University College of Law, graduating in 1995. It was a natural transition from medicine to law, said Marla Hamilton, a friend and lawyer.
“She could go straight to the heart of the matter, and she had a way of synthesizing and reaching practical, common-sense solutions”. Mrs. Duncan was in private practice, with a specialty in medical malpractice defense, until 2013, when she joined LAMMICO, a medical malpractice insurance company. She was a former president of the Upper Hurstville Security District and the former chair of the Trinity Counseling and Training Center.
Mrs. Duncan, an avid cook and gardener, was a founder of Wine Queens. She was a regular at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, where she sported a well-worn straw hat, festooned with decorative pins. “She was a whole lot of fun to be around,” her friend Marla Hamilton said.
Every Sunday during football season, Mrs. Duncan prepared an ample buffet lunch for about 20 friends who converged on the Duncans’ home, which was nicknamed DuncDome, to watch the Saints. “She was happiest when she was doing things for others and being with people she loved,” said Joanne Rinardo, a friend since their days in law school. “She was one of the most generous people I know”.
Mrs. Duncan showed her practical side in a 2007 interview with The New York Times, in which she said that, before Hurricane Katrina hit, she and her family fled New Orleans with two trunks filled with photographs and paperwork, including birth certificates and their dog’s immunization records. “This is not going to happen again,” she said. “The next time, I’m carrying a digital flash drive, not trunks, loaded with my pictures”.
Survivors include Mrs. Duncan’s husband of 24 years, Brooke H. Duncan III, a son, James “Jack” Grimshaw Duncan of New Orleans; a stepson, Brooke H. Duncan IV of New Orleans; her parents, Robert E. Cooney III and Carlee Cooney of Metairie; a brother, Robert E. Cooney IV of Metairie; and two sisters, Mary Redwood of North Augusta, S.C., and Kathleen Hayes of St. Louis. The family wishes to express special thanks to the many friends and family who took such great care of Karen and her family. Thanks also to Dr. Ricardo Febry and his colleagues at Hospice Associates and to the staff and sitters of Home Instead.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the charity of your choice or to Trinity Episcopal Church. A funeral service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue on Saturday, December 15, 2018, at 3:30pm with visitation starting at 2:00pm. Interment will be private.
The family invites you to share your thoughts, fond memories, and condolences online at www. lakelawnmetairie.com.
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