Blandine Franziska Steinhauser
1903-2001
Born: New Riegel, Seneca County, Ohio
Died: Franciscan Care Center, Toledo, Ohio
1903-2001
Born: New Riegel, Seneca County, Ohio
Died: Franciscan Care Center, Toledo, Ohio
<p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">Blandine Frances McCarthy, 1903-2001, a nurse in Toledo hospitals, in local homes, and at the Toledo Zoo for many decades, died Sunday in the Franciscan Care Center nursing home on Holland-Sylvania Road. She was 97.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">Robert McCarthy, a son, said his mother died of pneumonia and complications from a stroke that she suffered in December. Born in New Riegel, Ohio, as one of 11 children raised by Joseph and Philomena Steinhauser, Mrs. McCarthy enrolled at the Mercy School of Nursing in Toledo and graduated in 1924.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">From there she signed up with a local nursing agency that supplied staff to Toledo's hospitals and in-home nursing care for private individuals. During those years, she worked with members of many prominent Toledo families.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">But Mrs. McCarthy may have been best known as the nurse at the zoo, where, starting in 1952, she looked after patrons who became ill or injured. She became well known as the "lady in white" at the Tiny Hurt Hospital in the zoo's Wonder Valley.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">Even after retiring from the zoo in 1968, Mrs. McCarthy continued providing in-home nursing care well into her seventies. Mrs. McCarthy was the consummate caregiver, Robert McCarthy said. In her day, nurses often prepared meals and helped their patients keep house along with providing medical attention. In a 1997 interview, she recalled tending to a young mother in a poverty-stricken rural household for whom she dug potatoes and picked peas to provide food.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">"She was the kind of person who would just jump in and take care of a family," Mr. McCarthy said. "She was a blessed individual. But her family always came first."</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">In 1927, she married John J. McCarthy, Jr., with whom she reared four children despite a schedule of ever-changing work shifts. She never drove a car, preferring to travel by bus or taxi or, during her days at the zoo, by tricycle.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">The McCarthys settled in on the 2300 block of Portsmouth Avenue, and Mrs. McCarthy would live on that block--moving across the street when she needed a smaller house to care for--until she fell ill in December. Mr. McCarthy said his mother was doing all her own housekeeping before her stroke. Over the years, Mrs. McCarthy amassed a sizeable collection of porcelain, ceramic, and glass figurines and other objects.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">"She had a good eye and would pick up whatever appealed to her," her son said. "That was her life, next to nursing."</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">Mrs. McCarthy became one of Mercy Nursing's most celebrated alumnae. She served five terms as president of the alumnae association and was a member of the group for more than 75 years. She was past president of the Toledo Diocesan Council of Catholic Nurses, president of the Former Catholic Nurses of Northwest Ohio, and a permanent member of the Mercy Guild, Mercy Auxiliary, and the Toledo Zoological Society.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">Her husband, whom she divorced during the 1950's, preceded her in death, as did a son, John J. McCarthy, III, and all of her brothers and sisters. Mrs. McCarthy is survived by her sons, Robert F. and James Patrick McCarthy; daughter Marjorie Ann Carter; 14 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.</p><p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 0.9em; margin-: 4.5cm; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 4cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.9cm">The body will be in the Ansberg-West Funeral Home, 3000 West Sylvania Ave., where the family will receive friends from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. A funeral will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Blessed Sacrament Church. The family requests tributes to the Mercy School of Nursing, Northwest Ohio.</p>