This Gulfport artist fights cancer, and the community rallies around her. Denise Keegan O’Hara is known for her inventive mixed-media work, her flowery murals, and – as pictured here in 2018 – her love of mermaids. Friends have organized a benefit auction to support O’Hara, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, on May 6 at Tiki Bar & Grill. Robynne Swanson
Fourteen years into her Gulfport life – a perfectly Gulfport existence, rich with art, neighborly deeds, and a splash of the wonderfully weird – Denise Keegan O’Hara faces an enormous, life-altering challenge. This January, she was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer.
This means seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, of treating her skin and gums to mitigate their ferocious side effects. It means a constant battle to stay hydrated, and longing for the day when she can eat something other than broth or Jell-O. It means she can’t get to her job as a server at the Comfort Café or keep up with her art.
Then there’s the cost. Aside from the lost income, O’Hara faces mounting medical expenses. She easily hit her deductible of $8,400 in the early stages of her treatment, and the co-payments for her medications can run up to $600. All of this is with a catastrophic health plan – if she had basic insurance, the costs would be even higher. Cancer is expensive.
And worst of all, despite everything she is doing to fight the disease, the prognosis is uncertain.
“After all this, then what?” she says, a rueful smile glittering in her eyes. “Either it’s done, or I’m dead.”
But that ghost of a smile says a lot. As her friend Monika Taylor remarked on the GoFundMe page she established to help friends and neighbors supplement Denise’s lost income, “She is a real tough cookie.”
Tossed and Found
When she moved here from Melbourne, Florida, more than a decade ago, O’Hara found a community where she could grow artistically.
“Gulfport really expanded my art,” she explains. As a self-described starving artist, she has developed a unique aesthetic with her mixed-media creations and her murals, which you can find all over the city. “I would scour alleyways,” she recalls, turning found objects into repurposed, recycled, one-of-a-kind works of art. Her business moniker? Tossed and Found.
This talent for bringing things beautifully together has also come in handy when neighbors were in need. She organized a yard sale and art raffle for Funkytown Boutique owner Jackie Kreuter when she received a lung cancer diagnosis in 2019 (Kreuter passed away in 2022). She organized another art-based fundraiser in 2022 to assist the family of Eric Cudar and Ulyana Fylypovych as they fled their war-torn home in Ukraine.
“As we all know,” writes Taylor, “[Denise] is always the first one to donate to help others.”
Denise O’Palooza
Now this consummate giver is leaning on her network of friends and family for support. There are daily appointments to get to, doctors and pharmacists and insurance to deal with, financial pressures. Friends like Cheryl Schwartz have been incredible, she says. Schwartz and other friends take turns driving Denise to various medical appointments and treatments (the O’Hara family does not have a car.)
And a group of friends including Suzie King, Debbie Stevenson, Debbie Amis, and Marianne Batryn (of local band Marianne & the Professor) is organizing a “Denise O’Palooza Fun-Raiser” on May 6. A silent auction and some groovy tunes will make it a night to remember.
This is all part of what makes Gulfport home now, O’Hara says. “I wouldn’t have had all this where I came from.”
Tomatoes and True Love
And then there’s Ian. O’Hara’s spouse, newly minted Gulfport City Council representative Ian O’Hara, first saw Denise when she worked behind the counter at Fey and Ryan Bernat’s produce stand (now The Annex Coffee House). “I just found her delightful,” her recounts. So naturally – because of, you know, feelings – “I couldn’t go inside.” He ended up buying a lot of outdoor display items like tomatoes and watermelon.
But eventually, they started talking. One night, she said he could walk her home. And on April Fools Day, 2019, the two married in the Gulfport Casino. “I now pronounce you Weird and Weirder,” said Jackie Kreuter, one of their two officiants. “You may now kiss your weirdness.”
More To Do
Ian says setting goals has been the thing that has kept the two of them going through these difficult weeks. Nothing too ambitious: just following doctors’ orders for feeding and hydration, getting up and going into her studio once a day.
Denise agrees, adding that her family has been a huge source of support – and not just her immediate family.
“There’s a beautiful, wonderful community here that I’m not done with yet,” she says, her cool blue eyes blazing warm. “I have more to do.”
The Denise O’Palooza Fun-Raiser event will take place May 6, 1-5 p.m. at The Tiki Bar & Grill (5519 Shore Ave. S.).
