In the days when Nicollet Avenue was lined with locally owned department stores, fashionable women gathered for live shows that displayed the retailers' latest styles.
And one of the stars of the runway was Kathleen Grogan Bush.
What many in the audience probably couldn't have guessed was that this glamorous star of fashion shows and advertisements was also the mother of five, raising her brood in the absence of her husband, whose job as a corporate pilot frequently took him far from home.
"She was a busy, busy gal," said her son, John Grogan of Flagstaff, Ariz. Juggling modeling and motherhood, Bush often brought her children to photo shoots, where they sometimes wound up appearing with her in the advertisements.
Bush died Jan. 6 at age 88, several years after developing Alzheimer's disease.
Born and raised in Edina, Bush grew up in a rigorous Catholic family. Her father, John Gill, was one of the founders of Gill Brothers Funeral Service & Cremation. Shortly after her graduation from the Academy of Holy Angels in 1948, Bush was named the first Miss Edina, a crowning that rated a front-page photo in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune.
Her modeling career began soon after and continued after she married and started a family with James Grogan, who later became chief pilot for the Pillsbury Co.
"I have three children. I know what that's like," said her daughter Maureen Warner of Edina. "I cannot imagine what it was like to have five children under 10 years old.
