Edna Kinsella

Edna Foster Fowler came into the world six weeks early after her mother fell down the stairs to the backyard. She was born in Louisville, KY a year to the day after her brother Jeff on December 14, 1942. Family lore states that in the chaos her tiny lung collapsed. She was not expected to live through the night, but Father Bill Pank anointed her with water from Lourdes and she survived. Father Bill would preside at her wedding 21 years later.

This thread of tenacity would weave throughout her life. When her mother, Ida, tragically went blind, a nine-year-old Edna took over the household duties while maintaining her grades and life-long love of learning at St. Bridget’s grade school. She loved the water and became a certified lifeguard and swim instructor, teaching lessons to children during the summer months. She graduated as valedictorian from Presentation Academy at 17 and won a scholarship to St. Anthony’s School of Nursing, which was conveniently across the street from her home.

In her second year of nursing school, her brother Jeff fixed her up on a blind date with a tall drink of water named Mike Kinsella. She was a little startled when he informed her on their second date they were going to be married, but warmed up to the idea after six months or so. She graduated from nursing school, once again at the top of her class, in June of 1963 and took a job at St. Anthony’s while Mike went to the University of Montana to attend graduate school. In summer of 1964, he returned and they were married at St. Paul’s Catholic Church on June 20.

Her honeymoon consisted of stuffing all the wedding presents they could into the back of a 1951 Pontiac and driving across the country in five days, with a lightning one-day tour of Yellowstone National Park. One night was spent crammed into a 12-foot trailer with two of Mike’s graduate school buddies on the top of a mountain pass at 10,000 feet. Very romantic, indeed.

While beginning her full-time nursing career at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula, Montana, Edna found time to quickly grow her family by three in under four years. While Edna was the ultimate homebody, life had other plans for her young family as a volatile job market sent them on an odyssey of cross country moves in support of Mike’s career. From Pleasant Hill, CA, to Gainesville, FL, to the wilds of the Everglades at Archbold Biological Station near Lake Placid, FL, Edna held her family together, creating a strong home base no matter where they landed.

The winds of change took them 3,200 miles back to Missoula, MT, by a U-Haul emblazoned with her least favorite slogan, “Adventures in Moving!” and then onward to a brief stay in Polson, MT. In October 1976, both Edna and Mike accepted jobs at the University of Montana Health Services in Missoula. In 1977, they moved into a house at 2108 Hilda Avenue. Here they finally put down the roots Edna propagated and there they would remain while the kids went through high school and college, one-by-one married, and brought seven beloved grandchildren and a great-grandchild into her life. Her home was a haven for her children and grandchildrens’ friends. Some considered her a second mother.

Edna became one of the first licensed Nurse Practitioners in the state of Montana, but came down with an exotic sounding but fairly unpleasant condition called palindromic rheumatism and was forced to retire and take disability in 1996. She would not be slowed down, so began volunteering as a Hospice and Parish nurse and founding the Martha Sewing Ministry at her church, a group that has grown to almost 100 and has met weekly for the last 25 years. The group’s reach is worldwide, with creations encompassing children’s dresses, military caps, cancer pillows, quilts, and toys. There is likely no one who entered Edna’s orbit who was not wrapped in love by one of the Marthas’ prayer shawls during the most challenging moments of their lives.

Edna was an avid crafter, including embroidery, quilting and crocheting hundreds of prayer shawls. She could swim for miles and adored working puzzles. She loved, more than anything, to absorb the stories of everyone (and we do mean everyone) she met with her endless empathy and consummate ability to listen. Edna adored Christmas, collecting more Santas than we can count, and could be found singing along to carols all year long. She loved to bake and dehydrate the fruit from her own trees, spreading love through banana bread and cinnamon apple chips far and wide. She could grow anything and was often found, until her body didn’t allow it, outside in her many gardens. Edna’s circle of friends, whom she cherished, is deep and wide as she nurtured those connections in the same way she did her flowers. Her faith was unshakeable and asking her to pray for something felt like having a direct pipeline to God.

Edna died from complications of multiple strokes on March 13, 2025, and was surrounded by family & friends until the end. She is survived by her husband of 60 years, John Michael Kinsella; her siblings Jeff Fowler and Mary Perry in Louisville, KY; her daughters Kathy Shea (Jim) and Shannon Thomas (Jim) in Helena and her son, Michael Kinsella in Missoula; 7 grandchildren: Katherine Shea (Robert Hogan), Moira Zaferis Shea (Alex), Taylor Edmunds (Dylan), Kenyon and Aston Kinsella, Mariah and Ryann Thomas; a great-grandson, Theodore Edmunds; and numerous nieces and nephews across the country.

A funeral celebration of Edna’s life is planned for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at Christ the King Catholic Church. Edna would wish any memorials be given to her beloved Martha Sewing Ministry to continue her life’s mission of covering her community and world in healing and love. Monetary donations can be made out to: Martha Sewing Ministry, ℅ Christ the King Catholic Church, 1400 Gerald Avenue, Missoula, MT 59801.