Ross McConnell

Friday, January 18, 2019

#RIP Margaret Helen Kimja McConnell

Born 05 February 1961 in Seoul, Korea, died 27 January 2016 in West Hartford CT, Kim was the adopted daughter of David Graham McConnell and Virginia Langhorne Alexander (Buddy-photo, left) McConnell. After more than a year of their working through the system, Kim was officially adopted by proxy in Seoul, and was brought at six months of age in August of 1961 to Buddy at San Francisco International Airport by a Korean physician. Because the tiny infant was severely malnourished and afflicted with chicken pox, a highly contagious viral disease, the physician feared she would be denied admission by U.S. Customs. He managed to spirit her through Customs in a shoebox, then advised Buddy of Kim's precarious condition and the urgency of immediate medical attention. Buddy was left with a very sick infant and three older boys to manage, just as she was trying to finish moving into a new house in Los Altos, South of San Francisco. Not anticipating the infant's immediate arrival, Dave had returned to Columbus to close down his lab at Ohio State before taking a new job in Palo Alto. Kim's survival during her critical transition to America was due to Buddy's 'round-the-clock, weeks-long devotion to Kim's care, and the vital participation of a Los Altos pediatrician. After the family's return to Ohio, Kim received her pre-school and primary school education in Upper Arlington. Later, she received her secondary school education at Connecticut's Kent School, where she competed in varsity soccer and cross-country, and was a year-book photographer graduating in 1979. In 1987 she earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Hartford, and from May 1988 until September 1990 worked in accounting at Hartford's CIGNA insurance corporation. From her early thirties until her death, Kim struggled valiantly with systemic lupus erythematosus. She was predeceased by her adoptive mother (Buddy); three adoptive older brothers - Ross, Paul and Alex McConnell; and Alex's wife Sandra Grahn. She is survived by Alex's two sons Galen and Duncan McConnell, her stepmother Pat Barnes-McConnell, stepsisters Teresa Barnes Kilgore and Debora Barnes-Josiah, her adoptive father David, her uncle (Buddy's younger brother) James C. K. Alexander, four step-nieces or nephews and many good friends including Elise Lafosse and Laurel Gilmour Dempsey from Kent School, Helen and Tony Toland of West Hartford and Avon CT. Kim will be greatly missed by friends and family.