Feb. 09--Katie Remer ignored advice she got in high school to become a secretary and instead trained as an X-ray technician, a step that started her on a long career in health care that included many years at Cook County Hospital as a supervisor and administrator.
Remer was well into middle age when she became a registered nurse. Aqueela Ali was a co-worker at Cook County Hospital when Remer convinced her they should become nurses.
"She decided we should try," Ali said of the two going back to school to become nurses when she was in her 30s and Remer was in her 40s. "We graduated from Malcolm X (College in Chicago)."
Remer, 76, died of complications from multiple myeloma at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago on Jan. 27, according to her husband, Robert. She was a longtime resident of the Edgewater neighborhood in Chicago and also had a home in Freeport, Ill.
Remer, born Katie Burks, grew up in Arkansas. She came north with her father when she was 12, her husband said. After graduating from what was then DuSable High School, she trained in X-ray technology at Cook County Hospital, since replaced by Stroger Hospital.
She began work in radiology at Illinois Central Hospital on South Stony Island Avenue around the mid-1960s. The hospital later became Doctors Hospital before closing in 2000.
She later worked at the since-closed Michael Reese Hospital before going to work as an X-ray technician at Cook County Hospital.
Over the years, she moved up in duties and responsibilities at County, according to her husband, who was an administrator there when the two met. They married in 1974. She was promoted to supervisor of the radiology department in the Fantus Health Center. She later became an administrator in the pulmonology department and then became a supervisor in the surgery department.
Her final move came just after she became a registered nurse, when she applied for and got the job of technical director for the department of radiology. She helped with the move of her department to Stroger Hospital when it opened in 2002, the same year she retired.
In an emailed statement, Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of Cook County Health Hospitals System, spoke about Remer's leadership at Cook County Hospital and later with the health system, as well as her dedication to patient care.
"She was instrumental in establishing outpatient radiology services at Fantus Health Center in 1998 and transitioning the radiology department to the new John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital," Shannon said. "Katie will always be remembered as a champion for our patients. Her work significantly improved access to specialized diagnostic medical imaging for Cook County's most vulnerable residents."
As Remer continued her work in health care, she also continued to pursue education. Over the years, she got a bachelor's degree in sociology from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and then a master's degree from Roosevelt University in health care administration. Both of those degrees came before she took the courses to become a registered nurse.
"She was ambitious, always wanting to learn," Ali said. "She felt there was so much to know, and she never stopped learning."
Somehow she also found time to travel, including to some faraway destinations.
"We went all over the world," said Phyllis Mbaye, who met Remer when both were X-ray technicians at Illinois Central. She said she got the travel bug in the early 1970s with a trip they took together to London and Paris, with stops in Liberia and in Spain.
"We used to go to Africa each year," said Mbaye, remembering a "fantastic week" the two spent in Egypt in the early 1980s.
Friend Sally King said Remer was active in her community and in politics, working hard on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and later volunteering for Barack Obama.
"She had a way of dropping the seeds of learning and of happiness on you," Ali said. "She always tried to leave you better than she found you."
In addition to her husband, Remer is survived by her daughter, Keme Sandoo; sisters Mary Alice Harris, Meany Franklin and Courtney Hale; and a granddaughter.
Her first marriage ended in divorce.
Plans are being made for a memorial service.
Megan is a freelance reporter.
