ANN E. BUSH

Ann Elizabeth (Kerrigan) Bush, 85, of Troy, Ohio, nurse, accomplished amateur painter, gifted home decorator, and curious traveler with a gift for drawing strangers out in conversation, died peacefully under Hospice care at Vancrest of Troy nursing home in Troy, Ohio, on May 30, 2025.

Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, on July 6, 1939, Ann was the daughter of John and Alice (Goodwin) Kerrigan, and sister to Jack Kerrigan of Duxbury, Massachusetts, the late Joan (Kerrigan) McAloon of Brockton, Massachusetts, and the late Joseph Kerrigan of Taunton, Massachusetts.

Ann grew up in Taunton, graduated from Taunton High School before going work in the clerical departments of Reed & Barton silversmiths in Taunton and Blue Cross Blue Shield in Boston. When she returned home to care for her mother during her final illness, Ann decided to train as a nurse, and earned her LPN license from Morton Hospital Nursing School.

She worked as a nurse at Lakeville Hospital in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where in 1969 she met her husband-to-be and devoted lifetime partner Paul Bush, also a nurse, who was running one of the area’s first dialysis clinics at the hospital.

They fell in love and married in 1970 at Saints Martha and Mary Catholic Church in Lakeville, Massachusetts, and then moved to Cape Cod, where they spent much of their lives in homes in Sandwich and Falmouth. Ann continued to work at a day-care center for the developmentally disabled in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

In retirement, Ann moved with Paul to Bradenton, Florida; Hilton Head, South Carolina; and finally, in 2010, to Troy, Ohio, to be close to Paul’s family.

Ann carefully decorated each new house, mixing antiques, old family pieces, furniture she had refinished and some of her own paintings to make the place home. Meanwhile, she and Paul continued to travel, driving across country, striking out on trips to the South and the West and flying to Ireland to check out her roots.

At each stop, she engaged strangers in conversation, drawing out the details of their lives in the way she had learned from her beloved father Jack. Years later, she could still remember the names of those she met and the restaurants where she and Paul dined.

Ann also loved music in general and jazz in particular, a legacy of her youthful work in the coatroom of the Roseland Ballroom in Taunton, where she met many of the era’s jazz greats. Decades later, she could still recount the conversations she had with the likes of Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Ann is survived by her husband of 55 years, Paul Bush Jr., 89, of Troy, Ohio; her brother-in-law, David Bush and his wife Margo (Butzier) Bush of Piqua, Ohio; her sister-in-law Bonnie (Pierce) Kerrigan of Taunton, Massachusetts; her niece Kristi (Bush) Enz and her husband Michael Enz, of Fletcher, Ohio; her niece Kathleen (McAloon) Convey and her husband Kevin Convey of Brockton, Massachusetts; and many other nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Ann’s family wishes to thank the staff of Ohio’s Hospice of Miami County, Troy, Ohio, for their warm care of Ann during her final illness. Donations may be made in her name to the Hospice.

A celebration of her life will be held at a later date. Funeral arrangements are being provided to the family through the Jamieson & Yannucci Funeral Home, Piqua, Ohio. Guestbook condolences and expressions of sympathy, to be provided to the family, may be expressed through jamiesonandyannucci.com

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