The year was 1939, when few young women dared dream of entering the professional work force, let alone become a physician.

Among those few was Rita Carey Nealon Harmeier, who that year became one of the first women to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. She was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society.

Dr. Harmeier, who did her internship at St. Francis Hospital and her pediatric residency at Children's Hospital, had been admitted to the medical school after completing only two years of undergraduate studies at Pitt.

All of that was quite an accomplishment for a woman of that era, but Dr. Harmeier had been raised by parents who encouraged her to chart any course she desired, and said that no goal she set was unattainable with hard work and persistence.

Dr. Harmeier, who for decades practiced as a pediatrician at the Children's Home of Pittsburgh and throughout the Pittsburgh region, died Monday at her apartment at the Longwood of Oakmont retirement community from complications of Guillain-Barre syndrome. She was 93.

Relatives and friends are celebrating a life well lived by Dr. Harmeier, said one of her daughters, Ranny Ferguson, of Squirrel Hill.

"She touched so many people in this city," said Ms. Ferguson, who continues her mother's legacy by serving as board president at the Children's Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center. "She did it in a very humble way. She had such graciousness.

"She was always a true lady who never lost her femininity as she practiced her medical skills helping others. She loved life, and she loved Pittsburgh, and she enjoyed having a lot of fun."

In addition to her work at the Children's Home, Dr. Harmeier gave well-baby clinics sponsored by the Allegheny County Health Department throughout the city.

In 1943, she married Dr. William Kennedy Nealon, a gynecologist and surgeon who practiced at Magee-Womens, St. Francis and Braddock hospitals. The couple, who had been neighborhood friends in their days growing up in Lawrenceville, originally lived in Point Breeze and then moved to Fox Chapel in 1969.

Because of a lack of interns in those days, Dr. Harmeier would sometimes assist her husband in his surgeries.

Two years after William Carey Nealon, their lone son among four children, was killed in a car accident, the couple moved to Highland Beach, Fla., in 1977. After Dr. Nealon died in 1991, Dr. Harmeier moved to Longwood at Oakmont. There, she became reacquainted with resident and former childhood friend Dr. Charles Harmeier, who had been a dentist at the old Jenkins Arcade, Downtown. The couple married in March 1994 -- the bride was 79 and the groom was 85. He died in March 2005.

In addition to Ms. Ferguson, Dr. Harmeier is survived by two other daughters, Nancy Ellis of New York City and Mary Kluttz of Charlotte, N.C.; a stepdaughter, Karen Harmeier Berner of Yardley, Bucks County; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandsons.

Friends will be received at McCabe Brothers Funeral Home, 6214 Walnut St., Shadyside, tomorrow from 5 to 8 p.m. A Mass will be celebrated Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Irenaeus Church, 387 Maryland Ave., Oakmont. A memorial service will be held at Longwood at Oakmont at a time to be scheduled.

The family suggests memorial donations to The Children's Home & Lemieux Family Center, 5324 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh 15224.