Katherine Moore Keeley M.D.

Katherine Moore Keeley, M.D., a Sarasota pediatrician and devoted advocate for vulnerable children, died March 13, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida. She was 73. Born on May 26, 1952, in Louisville, Kentucky, she was the daughter of Rogers Thomas Moore and Katherine Hogan Elliott.

Dr. Keeley devoted her life to the care and protection of children. A pediatrician in Sarasota since 1990, she practiced in several pediatric offices before joining First Physicians Group in 2015, where she continued her work at FPG Pediatrics at Lakewood Ranch until her retirement. She served for fifteen years as Medical Director of Sarasota’s Child Protection Center, working tirelessly on behalf of children who had experienced abuse or neglect. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital she held numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Staff, and received the hospital’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. True to her character, she continued practicing medicine for nine more years, retiring only nine days before her death. Her colleagues respected her rigorous standards, deep sense of responsibility, and unwavering commitment to her patients. She often told friends and family that “work is my happy place,” and she remained actively caring for children for as long as she could.

Dr. Keeley attended Hollins University in Virginia and earned her medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. During her studies she spent a year in Paris studying art history, an experience that deepened a lifelong love of culture and literature. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from 1979 to 1981. Beyond medicine, she was a wordsmith with an encyclopedic knowledge of literature, poetry, art, film, and architecture. Since her teenage years she kept journals filled with quotations and passages that moved her. Her relentlessly cheerful optimism and gentle smile defined her both at work and at home. She was often heard singing or humming, an unconscious habit that seemed meant to bring light to those around her.

Fiercely devoted to her children, she sacrificed in countless ways to support and guide them. She had a remarkable way of making each person she encountered—her children and grandchildren, friends, colleagues, patients, and coworkers—feel as though they were part of her most intimate world of safety, support, guidance, and love. Yet she remained a deeply private person who preferred to move through life quietly. She is survived by her children, Samuel Blaine Keeley Jr. of Nuremberg, Germany, Katherine Wakefield McDonald of Lakeland, Florida, and John Clement Keeley of Marietta, Georgia, her grandson Adam Keeley, four granddaughters, her brother Rogers Thomas Moore, and her nieces Diane Moore Marsh and Sarah Moore Watkins, both of Sarasota. In keeping with her wishes, no funeral or memorial service will be held. A steadfast advocate for Sarasota Memorial Hospital throughout her career, she asked that donations in her memory be made to the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation. She lived exactly as she wished, caring for children, serving her community, and finding joy in the work she loved.