Julie O’Reilly, a resident of San Marino, California, for 45-years and a beacon of light to all who knew her passed away with her son holding her hand.
They were listening to the bossa nova music she so loved, as the sun rose on August 8, 2023, after a valiant fight against lung cancer.
Born on April 26, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois, to Paul and Margaret Healy O’Reilly, Julie grew up in the villages of River Forest and Elmwood Park while attending St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic school. When her family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, she represented the first graduating class of the newly formed Girard High School. After a year at the University of Arizona in Tucson, she transferred to the Lone Mountain San Francisco College for Women to complete her bachelor’s degree in drama in 1970. Many of her friends today began their friendships with Julie in these early formative years.
Julie’s first step on her career path took her upward to the skies, graduating from Pan American World Airways Flight Attendant Academy in 1971 and continuing to fly internationally for sixteen years. Ultimately, she completed her time with Pan Am recruiting the next generation of flight attendants, some of whom still fly today. She left Pan Am with a remarkable set of new friends and proudly maintained her membership in World Wings International, the philanthropic organization of former Pan Am flight attendants. Her actual uniform is regularly on display at the Flight Path Museum and Learning Center at Los Angeles International Airport.
Motherhood and her desire for a consistent schedule brought her back to Earth. She spent the next few years working at Northrup as an instructional designer developing safety protocols for the B-2 Stealth Bomber project. During this time, she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 (with a then ten-year-old son) and underwent extremely invasive treatment. Ultimately this life-time non-smoker lived the next 34 years cancer free.
Always an antithetical Taurus, Julie realized her remarkable charisma, diplomatic touch and intelligence made her an ideal candidate for the world of medical device sales. She rose to the top ranks of sales representatives within the world’s largest medical device company, Medtronic. Her mastery of the extremely technical world of Pacemakers and Implanted Defibrillators combined with her grace and ability to manage the human-side of often-demanding physicians dazzled customers and co-workers alike (even some competitors!).
As her professional career came to an end with a well-earned voyage into retirement, she began the most fulfilling stage of her life, being called, ‘Ganny.’ She alternated her days in retirement between her swimming group at the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena, where she was an active member and volunteer, San Marino League, serving as a volunteer docent at the Huntington Library, Luminaries supporting the Doheny Eye Institute, PEO and finally making the drive every Friday to spend the afternoon and evening with her granddaughter.
Known by all for her grace, style, creativity, and genuine caring soul, she was also a two-time The Joker’s Wild champion on the classic game show. Her attention to detail extended from her wardrobe to every room in her home. Fluent in French and Spanish, she brought her joy of celebrating cultures from her trips all around the world to every party she planned as a consummate hostess. A phenomenal cook, she loved entertaining friends and family alike at her home. Her enthusiastic encouragement of all around her made Julie a constant source of support for those she loved.
She is survived by her son Daniel Bejmuk (from her prior marriage to Bohdan Bejmuk) and the light of her life, her granddaughter Chloé Luna Bejmuk (and her mother Claudia). She is also survived by her sister Carole Kemps, brother-in-law Jim Kemps, nieces Deborah Brown, Kristine Mendes, Jennifer Sylvester and their children: Erin, Nathan, Brytan, Jonas, Rihanna and Zoe and Elizabeth Bejmuk.
Her partner of 20 years, Harold (Hal) Harrigian, and she were renowned in the Pasadena area for their zest for dining out (Julie loved the Annandale snack bar where Hal is a longtime member), and traveling the world together. They continually supported their blended family including Hal’s sons Mark and Mike Harrigian, wives Joycelyn and Karen and their respective children: Fiona, Olivia, Cambell, Carter and Ellis.
Hosting two American Field Service foreign exchange students in the 1980s and 1990s brought her Norwegian family into the fold: Stig Jarstein, wife Regina, sons Anton, Viktor and Theodore, along with Luis Lueje, wife Monica and their children from the Dominican Republic.
Her celebration of life and dinner will be on August 18, 2023, in Pasadena, California. Please email bejmuk@gmail.com for more information.
