Car crash victim served 10 years as chaplain at Las Vegas hospice

The Rev. Kathryn Murphy, 75, was healthy, active and deeply compassionate for the patients she spent a decade helping.

Murphy worked as a hospice chaplain at Divine Hospice for the last 10 years, where her daughter Johanna van Oeveren estimates she helped about 1,000 people through their end of life transition.

In her free time, Murphy volunteered at the Center for Spiritual Living of Southern Nevada, which describes itself on its website as “a spiritual community,” Van Oeveren said. Murphy provided spiritual counseling, taught classes and worked as the interim choir director at the center.

Murphy was killed in a car crash Monday morning. Police said she stopped at a stop sign at Rainbow Boulevard near Sahara Avenue, and was hit when she pulled out onto Rainbow. The other driver, a 26-year-old woman, suffered minor injuries. The Metropolitan Police Department has said that impairment was not a factor in the crash, and Murphy’s death was ruled an accident.

She raised three daughters in California while working for 30 years in real estate before earning her master’s degree in consciousness studies. She then became ordained as a minister by the Agape International Spiritual Center in California, said Rachael Dilling, Murphy’s coworker and fellow chaplain.

Murphy got into hospice work in Palm Springs, but moved to Las Vegas in 2010 to help Van Oeveren when she gave birth to twin boys.

‘She taught us how to dream’

Van Oeveren told the Review-Journal on Thursday that her mom always taught her children and grandchildren that they could do anything they set their minds to.

“She taught us how to dream, and she was such a great role model,” Van Oeveren said.

Dilling, who worked with Murphy at the Divine Hospice for more than two years, said Murphy taught her how to be a chaplain. In a phone interview Friday, Dilling remembered sitting in the room while Murphy worked with patients — singing for them, praying, and being “always compassionate, always kind.”

“There was nothing else that she planned on doing,” Dilling said. “This was her calling and her mission to help people.

Dilling said Murphy worked with two other hospices and saw up to 60 patients a month. On Monday morning, Murphy was set to meet with Dilling for a work meeting, but was informed of the crash by a coworker. Dilling said she felt compelled to go find Murphy, and made it to the crash scene before the ambulance had left.

“I just got up and I drove around the corner, parked and walked across Rainbow,” Dilling said. “I prayed for her.”

Van Oeveren said her mother’s life was cut short. She said Murphy was an adventurer who always said she was going to live to be 100.

“Her death really came as a shock,” Van Oeveren said. “She was so alive and had so much life left in her.”

‘She just was fun’

Dilling also said Murphy was full of life, describing a scene near Halloween when Murphy ran to the front of the congregation at the Center for Spiritual Living of Southern Nevada to promote a fundraiser. She was wearing a Wonder Woman hat and Superman outfit, complete with a cape.

“Everybody was paying attention because she just was fun,” Dilling said with a laugh. “She enjoyed the theatrics of it all.”

Dilling said that while she misses her friend and mentor, she isn’t bothered knowing she’s moved on like the hundreds of patients Murphy worked with as a chaplain.

“In my belief she’s free of her physical body and she’s able to do whatever it is she does,” Dilling said. But she added that “It’s sad and I miss her, and I miss her guidance. I miss her wisdom and her playfulness.”

Murphy leaves behind her three daughters and five grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Kevin.

A celebration of life will be held at the Center for Spiritual living, 4325 North Rancho Drive, Suite 110, on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Van Oeveren expects it will be packed.

Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter. Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.