Patricia Kevena Fili's Obituary
Patricia Kevena Fili, also known as P.K., was born in March 1951 in Portland, Oregon, as Patrick Kevin Feely. Later in life, Patricia identified as being transgendered.
Patricia was interested in spiritual life from a young age and was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition of her mother, attending Catholic school for the first eight grades in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The transition to public school after that was difficult. Patricia was picked on by other kids for being shy and unpopular. All of this reinforced the understanding that it wasn’t OK to be different. Patricia developed interest in the arts, writing poetry and plays in high school. She was also involved in speech and debate in those years.
Patricia served in the U.S. Air Force one year in South Korea during the Vietnam War, doing clerical work in a noncombat role. After military service, Patricia enrolled at Portland State University and worked several years for a state agency in Portland.
She became active in movements for social change, working with New American Movement, a socialist feminist organization, and at the community radio station KBOO, where she cohosted a public affairs program. She got married and helped raise the joy of her life, daughter Madelyn Turner. Hoping to build her career, Patricia went back to college, earning a Masters of Arts and Communications from the University of Portland. In 1989 she relocated to the Bay Area, enrolling in seminary at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Patricia was the first self-identified pagan Unitarian there. P.K’s desire in life was to be a healer, working for political change through art and performance. After completing divinity school, P.K. remained in the Bay Area and was active in the LGBT community, now identifying as a woman. She became a development professional for nonprofit groups, and later served as executive director of an LGBT community center. P.K. was proud of her role in facilitating gender identity and promoting non-discrimination protections with the Oakland City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors. She served on the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s National Religious Leadership Roundtable since 2005, and the Diverse Spiritual Traditions Working Groups since 2011. In her final years, P.K. became a songwriter. She died March 19, 2015 in Fairfield, Calif. P.K is survived by two older brothers: Steven Feely of Durham, Ore., and Michael Feely of Brigantine, N.J., a niece, Shelby Feely, and a daughter, Madelyn Turner. P.K.was preceded in death by her mother, Elsie, and father, James “Ted” Feely.
(Some of the information for this obituary was taken from a biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from information provided by Patricia Kevena Fili in Dec. 2012).
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