Post co-founder Kathleen OKeefe dies at 54

Kathleen Anne OKeefe, co-founder of the Phnom Penh Post and mentor to a generation of Cambodian journalists, died in the United States on Monday. She was 54.

OKeefe had battled pancreatic cancer for nine months, which she faced with her customary backbone of steel, her family wrote in an obituary published in The Boston Globe.

In turns newspaper founder, media trainer, human rights worker and advocate for those with HIV/AIDS, OKeefe is remembered by family, friends and former colleagues as resilient, compassionate and deeply empathetic.

In 1992, with then-husband Michael Hayes, OKeefe moved to Cambodia from Bangkok, where she had been working for a refugee organisation, to launch the Post, which started as a fortnightly newspaper.

It was to be the first independent newspaper in any language in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975.

The couple rented a three-storey villa opposite Wat Botum and lived on the first floor of a building that would house the newspapers offices, their home and various other guests, including foreign correspondent and early Post contributor Nate Thayer.

Those who worked at the paper as it was getting off the ground say the ambitious project would likely have foundered without OKeefes steady hand.

Kathleen OKeefe was the Phnom Penh Posts secret weapon a combination of General Patton and Mother Teresa, Thayer said.

There was never any question among anyone, from the get go, that it was Kathleen who was in charge, the irreplaceable glue that kept the very, very goofy idea of planting the flag of the Free Press in the headquarters of the belly of the beast, Phnom Penh, alive.

I cant tell you how many times Michael Hayes reiterated that the paper could simply not survive without Kathleen.

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Post co-founder Kathleen OKeefe dies at 54