Ms. Elizabeth Kiernan

Kiernan, Elizabeth, 95, of Clearwater, passed away on October 4, 2013. Elizabeth was born on September 24, 1918 in Ely, Nevada to a pioneering family from Cornwall, England. She grew up on a large sheep and cattle ranch in Casper, Wyoming. As a toddler, she was kissed and held by President Warren G. Harding while he was on a presidential tour of the west. She graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She worked in advertising with the Minneapolis Star Journal, and later with WCCO Radio in Minneapolis where she met such Hollywood luminaries as Betty Davis, the Andrew Sisters, and Gene Autry and his horse Champion. She joined the WAVES prior to her marriage to Dr. Robert L. Bradley in 1943, and spoke often of the war years and the impact on their lives as he started his medical practice following his return from overseas. Together she and her husband coauthored several medical articles that were published in peer reviewed journals. Elizabeth later earned her Masters Degree in Library Science from Marshall University, and worked for over twenty years as a medical librarian, setting up medical libraries in hospitals in West Virginia and Florida. She held leadership positions in medical library and special library associations, and was listed in The World Who's Who of Women. She created the medical library for Morton Plant Hospital in the early 1980s. Elizabeth shared a lifelong passion for opera, ballet, wildlife conservation, and animals. During her retirement years she traveled extensively through Europe and the Orient. She is survived by her daughters Jan Nickols and Kathleen O'Grady of Clearwater, FL, son Robert L. Bradley, Jr., granddaughter Sharon Bradley and great-granddaughter Isabella Bonham of Lexington, KY. She also leaves behind her beloved chihuahuas, who spent long hours on her lap. Services to be held in West Virginia. In lieu of flowers, Elizabeth would be pleased to know donations were made in her memory to animal rescue organizations.