‘She was a good mother’: Kathleen Kincaid Shaw, a longtime Charlotte nurse, dies at 107
Kathleen Kincaid Shaw’s work ethic and selflessness as a nurse and mother might be why she lived to 107 years old, her son, Jim, said.
“She was a good mother,” he told The Charlotte Observer. “I miss her.”
Shaw died on May 26 in Charlotte under the care of her son and nurses from Hospice and Palliative Care Charlotte Region.
“They helped a lot and I helped the best I could,” her son said. “It is strange not having her around here anymore. You have to get used to the silence.”
Growing up a farm girl
Born on Nov. 3, 1914 in Burke County, Shaw grew up on a farm and was the second daughter to the late James Sylvester Kincaid and Eleanor Jaynes Kincaid of Morganton.
Shaw graduated from Morganton High School in 1935. She went on to graduate from the Berea College School Nursing in Berea, Kentucky.
Shaw worked as nurse in Morganton at Grace Hospital, now known as UNC Health Blue Ridge for several years, her son said. She moved to Charlotte soon after and began nursing at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, now called Atrium Health, he said.
Meeting Charles
At Charlotte Memorial, she met a patient named Charles Williams Shaw, her son says. The two got married in 1942, he said.
Charles Shaw died in 1955 of multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell, Jim Shaw, who was 3 years old at the time, said.
“She was a single parent all those years,” he said. “It was tough for her trying to raise two children.”
Shaw continued to work as nurse at Charlotte Memorial until her 65th birthday, her son said.
Driving at age 100
Following Shaw’s retirement, she would continue going to Calvary United Methodist Church, open a shop that sold sewn crafts and plant a garden at her home, her son said. Her favorite flowers were carnations, which were also on her casket spray, he said.
Shaw continued to drive until she was 100 years old, her son said. She would mainly drive to the grocery store or church during her later years, he said.
“She decided it was time to stop because she couldn’t see that well,” Shaw said. “She just handed over the keys and that was that.”
Shaw’s final months
The hospice nurses couldn’t believe Shaw was 107 year old because of how good she got around, her son said. Her health didn’t really began deteriorating until the last four or five months, he said.
“She started off with a cane, and then began using a walker,” he said. “Eventually, she could not get out of bed anymore.”
On one of her final days, Shaw said he told his mother that “it was OK if she wanted to go on” and that he and his brother, Bernard, can take care of themselves now.
Shaw was buried on June 2 in a casket lined with her favorite color — pink, her son said.
“Her walls in her bedroom were pink,” he said.
Shaw is survived by her two sons; sister Angell Crisp; two grandchildren; two great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
This story was originally published June 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
