Kathleen “Kat” Linehan-Speaker, 58 of Galena, IL and former resident of Medford, MA passed away peacefully surrounded by her loving family on March 11, 2022. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11 AM, Sunday, May 15, 2022, at the Furlong Funeral Chapel, Galena and where friends may gather after 10 AM until the time of service. Military honors will begin the celebration of life at 11 AM. Those honors will be accorded by Galena VFW Post #2665 and American Legion Post #193, of Galena. Cremation rites have been accorded.

She was born September 14, 1963, in Orlando, FL the daughter of Gerard and Theresa (Breen) Linehan. Kat was a Navy veteran retiring as an MA1 after serving in the US Army and Navy for seventeen years. She received numerous awards including sailor of the year in 1991. Following retirement, she relocated her family to Galena where she served her neighboring communities, as a social worker while she earned her BA/CJ and MA/CJ. She used these to develop the current LE and CJ program at the Elizabeth, IL CTE and to teach as an adjunct professor at Sauk Valley Community College and Highland Community College. Kat was also known in her community as a martial arts instructor and member of the Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Merit Commission. She touched so many lives in her time and will be greatly missed by all, especially the locals at her favorite coffee shop where she would share the latest news of her beloved New England Patriots.

Kat is survived by her four children, Shannon (Michael) Distler, Danielle (fiancé Riley Krueger) Speaker, Samuel (Dakota) Speaker, and Gabrielle (Stephen) Curtis, five grandchildren, Dominick, Tessa, Norah, Alaina, and Hannah, her stepmother, Jean Linehan, and her siblings, Kevin, Mark, Jeff, Beth, Jackie, Thomas, and James.

She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, Edwin, Dennis, and Gerard Linehan. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to Juvenile Diabetes or Muscular Dystrophy in memory of Kat.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.furlongfuneralchapel.com