Kay McBrady was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas on April 12th, 1948 and died November 14th, 2025 after a brief battle from a rare and aggressive cancer. She was a career Social Worker at the VA Hospital.
She is survived by her husband, Peter, son Adam (Rose) McBrady, daughter Rebecca (Tim) Butts, Grandsons Ryan and Logan Butts, sister Ann (Ed) Endicott of Collierville TN, niece Emily (Nate) Barnes and nephew David (Kathleen) Endicott and by many friends whom she cherished.
Burial will be private at Jefferson Barracks Cemetery. She requested no service or visitation.
In lieu of flowers, you can make a donation in her memory to Siteman Cancer Center.
Kay hired me @STLVAMC in Social Work in 2008
Kay cared deeply about the Veterans she served and held her staff to high standards.
I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to share a small part of her life.
My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends for peace and comfort🙏🏼
What a terrible loss. Kay was my chief at the St. Louis VA when I hired on. It was later in my career and she was by far away the best supervisor I ever had. She was fair, advocated for her employees, challenged me, supported advancement, Kay began her career as a line Social Worker and never forgot her roots. Unassuming, direct communicator, supportive, great sense of humor, and certainly not the typical ladder climbing supervisor that plagued the VA, She was clear that the VA was the Veterans place and in all things we were there to serve them. Period.
I was completely unaware of her illness or death while on the way to Blues game SaturdayI shared with a friend an incident involving Kay when I texted the Secretary of the VA during another government shutdown, after receiving a disturbing and misleading National VA message that had fellow employees up in arms. I had no delusions that my message would get to his desk. Wrong. Fifteen minutes later I was walking down the hall and there came Kay. “We need to see the Director.” she calmly said. As we walked I was clueless what it was about until she asked calmly but incredulously “Did you send an email to the Secretary?” I had no idea how fast bad news travels at the VA! In the end we had a good conversation with a very reasonable Director who intoned “I don’t know why National sends out confusing messages like this.” As we left I promised to Kay in the future I would make sure she was the FIRST person I’d contact should I be so moved in the future. Have to confess I was responsible for at least a few of Kay’s grey hairs!
To top it off she was a Blues fan!
I am a better person and clinician for having known and worked with Kay- and the world a better place as well . Profoundly saddened at the news of her death. May she rest in God’s Peace. My prayers are also with her family and friends, may they be comforted in their loss.
Kay McBrady hired me in 2007 as a social worker for the MHICM Program. She was an amazing social worker supervisor! Her pound cakes were awesome! My prayers go out to her family!
Kay was the ultimate matriarch of our little subdivision. She was always the social coordinator, bookkeeper, and always made sure everyone was in the know about all things Balmagoun. We were Always greeted warmly by Pete, Kay and Holiday Helen when walking into their home. We are heartbroken and it will not be the same without her❤️
The Young’s
Kay Mc Brady profoundly touched my professional life. She was a gracious, strong, determined woman and Social Work Supervisor! This was written for a celebration of Kay McBrady’s retirement from the VA in 2014:
“Kay, you have touched so many Veterans’ lives through your leadership in the VA. You have touched them through your direct interventions and through your careful and thorough training of seventy plus Social Workers, enabling each of us to impact thousands of Veterans’ lives.
In Social Work there are no parades, no academy awards, no honor banquets. Many times, those around us never know the extra mile that is taken. The quiet empathy and support that we give that may change a Veteran course from death to life. The times when our vision and dreams for our clients are thwarted by bureaucratic and political entanglements and resistance.
The results of our lifelong work may only be known and recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, where God does not turn a blind eye to any of our endeavors and our desire to serve Him and His creation, and records them all.
We thank you for your total commitment to the Veterans and to humanity, your patience and kindness, organizational abilities, listening ear, and encouragement that has enabled us to also serve with dignity and respect within our professions. We thank you for listening to our visions and dreams and feedback as Social Workers.
You will be sorely missed.”