Margaret Lillie Mckevit

Margaret Lillie McKevit passed away September 30, 2022 at John Knox Care Center. A graveside service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, October 7, 2022, at Floral Hills Cemetery, Kansas City, MO. Contributions may be made to the Graceland University School of Nursing, 1409 W. Truman Road, Independence, MO 64050 or a charity of your choice. Margaret was born on September 27, 1933 in Independence, the daughter of Oliver and Mabel (Andrew) McKevit. Margaret enrolled at Graceland in 1951 and received her A.A. in nursing in 1955 after studying at the Independence Sanitarium. She continued her education at the University of Colorado, completing her bachelor's degree in 1958 and her M.S.N. in 1962. Margaret began her educational career at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1953 to 1961, then taught at the University of Wisconsin during 1963-66. Her pioneering decade in establishing the Graceland nursing campus at Independence, Missouri, started in 1966 when she assumed a year-long position to coordinate a curriculum revision study at the Sanitarium. As a chair of the Nursing Advisory Committee and director of nursing studies during 1967-68, Margaret developed Graceland's baccalaureate nursing program, which was passed by the Board of Trustees in January of 1968 and approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing the next month. In May of 1971, the nursing division offered total professional curriculum and graduated its first students in the nursing major. Margaret then served as the college's first Division of Nursing chair from 1968 to 1976. In addition to her administrative duties, Margaret taught Health Care Systems and the Issues and Research courses to Graceland students. She was also the first woman to serve on the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital Board of Trustees. Margaret left Graceland in 1976 to join the faculty at Louisiana State University Medical Center School of Nursing, serving as director of the baccalaureate nursing program there. However, she maintained her connection to Graceland as a member of the college's Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1994. McKevit Manor, the housing unit created in 1970-71 for nursing students in Independence, was named in Margaret's honor. Margaret was preceded in death by her parents.