Anne Shawley Tomasic, a longtime nursing supervisor at the former St. Francis Hospital who continued caring for others long after her 1987 retirement, died Thursday of heart failure in her North Versailles home. She was 83.

She was raised in Glassport and North Versailles in a family that imbued her with a deep Catholic faith. As a high school student during World War II, she was at the former Ardmore Roller Skating Palace in Forest Hills when she struck up a conversation with Robert Shawley, a high school senior who would soon be leaving for the war. She wrote to him throughout his service in Europe, said their eldest son, Michael Shawley of North Versailles.

Meanwhile, after working for a year at the Westinghouse Electric plant in East Pittsburgh, she became a "cadet nurse," pledged to serve the military during wartime in return for the government paying her way through nursing school. But the war ended well before her 1947 graduation, and she married Mr. Shawley soon after.

Through the births of seven children she continued working, first on the night shift at McKeesport Hospital and, after 1960, at St. Francis in Lawrenceville. Through much of the 1960s, when her oldest children were able to look after the youngest, she also spent part of every day caring for her ailing mother.

She started as a weekend relief supervisor at St. Francis, but the sisters who owned the hospital made it permanent.

"She was a very kind, caring supervisor, very interested in quality care for the patients as well as making sure the staff was always well cared for," said Franciscan Sister Joanne Bich, who was a young nurse under her direction in the late 1960s.

"She was a wonderful person, such a genteel, loving lady. She expressed that love toward all of the patients but at the same time was able to have a real care and concern for the caregivers."

After her 1987 retirement, she became a volunteer parish nurse at St. Robert Bellarmine parish, offering blood pressure checks after Mass. She was active in the parish "and she always donated to Catholic missions. She cared a lot about that," her son said.

Retirement enabled her to support causes she had little time for during her career. Every January until an infection damaged her heart late last year, she boarded a bus to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life, protesting abortion.

She and her husband joined two senior citizens groups in which they played bingo and took trips. They became good friends with another couple in those groups, the Tomasics, and traveled together. After Robert Shawley died in 1998, followed by the first Mrs. Tomasic, she and Charles Tomasic married in 2000. They continued traveling and enjoying many activities together until her final illness, her son said.

In addition to her husband and son Michael, both of North Versailles, Mrs. Tomasic is survived by sons Greg Shawley of Lincoln Place, Eugene Shawley of North Huntingdon and Jerome Shawley of New Alexandria; two daughters, Ellen Witkowski of Hays and Kathryn Birchall of North Versailles; three stepsons, Joseph Tomasic of Wilmerding, Charles Tomasic of North Versailles, and Thomas Tomasic of North Huntingdon; a stepdaughter, Martha Wilson of Larimer; a sister, Marie Ondik of West Mifflin; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today and from 2 to 8 p.m. tomorrow at James F. Kutch Funeral Home, East McKeesport. A Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Robert Bellarmine Church in East McKeesport. Interment is in St. Joseph Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, 1313 Fifth Ave., East McKeesport, PA 15035.