May 15, 2014

In memoriam: Kristen M. (O’Keefe) Furbush ’96

‘She said her goodbyes … and set her soul free’

Kristen M. (O’Keefe) Furbush ’96, a vice president of global markets at State Street Corp., died Nov. 11, 2013, at home in Canton, Mass., six months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Just two months later, on Jan. 12, her husband, Stephen R. Furbush, died of an apparent heart attack.

They were the parents of two children, Kayley, 6, and Patrick, 3.

Mrs. Furbush, a 1992 graduate of Braintree High School, studied mathematical economics at PC and met her husband while she was a student. During her cancer treatment, he kept their family and friends updated through a website, writing in November that she was leaving the hospital to rest “in this house that she transformed into our little home.”

“She just wanted to come home and get her loving arms around her two beautiful children whom she loved more than any mother ever has,” Mr. Furbush wrote. “She said all her goodbyes, made her peace and set her soul free.”

After his wife’s death, Mr. Furbush, a mortgage processor at Wellesley Bank, established the Furbush Children’s Fund, care of Wellesley Bank, 40 Central St., Wellesley, MA, 02481.  

Mrs. Furbush was the daughter of John J. and Margaret A. (Rizzitano) O’Keefe of Braintree and the sister of John O’Keefe of Dorchester and Paul O’Keefe of Weymouth. Her funeral Mass was celebrated on Nov. 15, 2013, in St. Clare Church, Braintree.

Her husband was a 1992 graduate of Framingham High School who played on the soccer team at Babson College and earned a degree from Emerson College. He also studied in PC’s School of Continuing Education. His funeral Mass was celebrated on Jan. 17 in St. Gerard Majella Church, Canton. 

The Furbush children are in the care of grandparents.