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Dennis, right with Billy on his wedding day |
Dennis loved the area so much
DENNIS O’Keefe, who has died aged 58, was a caretaker on the Coopers Lane estate, a porter at Whittington Hospital and the youngest of seven siblings in a well-known Camden Town family.
Dennis’s parents Jim and Josephine O’Keefe moved to London from Ireland in the late 1930s and set up home in Bayham Street.
Dennis, who was born and passed away in University College Hospital, lived his whole life in the area – he loved Somers Town so much, his family say he did not even like to take holidays.
Born in 1949, Dennis was the youngest of seven children and was nicknamed Bubs. He went to William Collins school, and got his first job through his sister-in-law as a packer in a dress factory.
However, he did not enjoy the work and when his brother Billy got a job with the council, he joined him as a plasterer’s mate.
He met his wife Susan when he was 19 – she was 15 at the time and still at school when they got engaged. They married at Camden Town Hall in 1971.
The couple moved to the Coopers Lane estate in the early 1980s where Dennis took on the job of resident caretaker.
They had four children.
Dennis is well remembered for always being on call for tenants.
In the mid-1990s, Dennis decided to leave his job – he told friends he was fed up with the politics of working for a local authority. He began working as a porter at Whittington Hospital in Archway.
Dennis was a keen Spurs fan, and this would lead to family banter with his brother Brian who followed Arsenal.
He loved films and had a soft spot for classic Walt Disney pictures. Family members say he would claim to have bought them to show his two grandchildren.
Dennis was a regular at the Cock Tavern and the Coffee House in Somers Town, and was a popular figure.
Friends nicknamed him “the quiet man”.
At his funeral, mourners remembered a man who was quiet, steady and reliable: he had great strengths which included never judging anyone.
Dennis was diagnosed with cancer in April. He passed away at the end of September.
He is survived by his siblings Pat, Johnny, Mary, David and Brian, his children Sarah, Martin, Steven and Gary, and grandchildren Callum and Louy and his former wife Susan. His brother Billy predeceased him.
DAN CARRIER |
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