Casey the Big Brain High School Graduate

We the Mullins Family were proud to be on hand last Sunday to see the next generation of Mullinses, our nephew Casey George Mullins, graduate from high school. He graduated May 19 from Saint Thomas Moore High School in St. Francis, Wis.

Casey (second from left) with classmates at his high schoolgraduation

Tricia, Bill and I flew from California and Joe and Betty living in Milwaukee all attended. Our sister-in-law Linda Hirthe, Casey’s mom and our late brother John “Moon” Mullins’s wife, also attended along with her new husband Pete Hirthe and their brood of four delightful children, Thomas, Nora, Owen and Connor. Casey’s grandma Dwyer and several of his aunts, uncles and cousins from Chicago also attended.

Among the 88 students in the class of 2013 at what they call “STM” they have been granted a combined $4.5 million in scholarships. Quite a haul! Casey is planning to enroll at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall and plans to study engineering.

We’re all very proud of him and know his father, Moon, is, too.

After the ceremony, we walked over to Uncle Joe Mullins’s house for a cookout with Pete Hirthe serving as the grillmaster. Brat’s, Italian sausages, hamburgers and other goodies were enjoyed by all. With so many cameras and smartphones around, the enjoyment of the afternoon was recorded multiple times. We also got a chance to meet Casey’s girlfriend, Jenna Nakatsuji, who also graduated from STM.

The night before, a number of us gathered at Barnacle Bud’s, a bar at which Joe is the manager, and also welcomed Jim and Tom Jonas and other friends. Casey arrived (he works there) to see that his cousin Erin Freer was also on hand, which was a surprise for him. She’s just finishing up her first year studying to become a physician’s assistant at a school in Mississippi.

I’ve been having trouble posting multiple photos to the blogs today so I’ve taken to uploading them to Dropbox, which you should be able to see without having to enter a username or password. You get two e-mails, one to link to the blog and the other to link to the photos. I invite Linda or Casey to share this post and the Dropbox photos with their Dwyer relatives who may not be on my mailing list.

Congrats again to Casey and I hope everyone has an enjoyable summer.

Best wishes to all,

Robert Mullins

Mary Ann McCorry 'Taught us to enjoy life to the fullest'

The stained-glass window at St. Peter the Great Church in Quincy

Sorry it took so long to post this but I was traveling last week and when I got back I had a number of tech events to cover in Silicon Valley.

I traveled to Quincy, Ill., with my brother Bill and sister Mary for the May 17^th memorial service for our dear Aunt Mary Ann McCorry who died April 16 at age 89. She would have turned 90 on May 22, which also happens to be my birthday. Other relatives in attendance were Aunt Teresa Jonas, her son Michael and daughter Mary (Jonas) Groth. Representing the Schields was David Schield. Neither of the nuns could make it, unfortunately.

Dan McCorry delivered the eulogy, at St. Peter the Great church in Quincy and did a great job of portraying his mother as the lively and loving wife, mother, grandmother, etc. “who taught us all to ENJOY life to the fullest—every day.” Here are a few excerpts:

“Mother was a woman of faith.  We remember her leading us in saying an evening rosary as we grew up… she continued to recite the rosary with and for our grandchildren… and she religiously prayed the rosary every morning for us all.

“Family was her most precious treasure.  She would allow the housework to lapse in favor of spending more time with the family… especially when Dad was away on long business trips when we were young.  She took us on family picnics after Mass almost every Sunday during the summertime.  She read to us as children… and as we grew older, she read to our children

“But Mother’s favorite time of the year was of course Christmas!  We have all enjoyed her almost childlike spirit at that special time of year.  From Advent calendars (she even had this year’s calendars ordered)… to 10-day countdown to Christmas candles on the kitchen table to gingerbread cutouts in the window… to cardboard toy soldiers on the hutch… to non-stop Christmas music.

“She and Dad taught us the value of education, and sacrificed a lot to send us to the some of the best schools.  Mother valued not just formal schooling, but lifelong learning.... She enrolled in local colleges here for classes in Shakespeare, art, and anything else that intrigued her and then she always shared what she learned with us and anyone else who would listen.

    “Remember her voice mail messages?  The last one on her recording machine… “A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart … have a lovely, lovely day… and sweet dreams tonight.  Bye, bye.”  She touched our hearts…and we will always remember her love.”

Dan also mentioned her generosity and volunteerism, making sandwiches for sandbag crews who helped when the Mississippi River flooded, as a mentor for troubled children in Quincy homes, as a Cub Scout and Girl Scout leader. Also the little things like slipping little love notes into her children’s school lunches. I remember her outgoing message at Christmas, “It’s not the things you do at Christmas that count, it’s the Christmas things you do all year long.”

When the service was ending at about 7:00 p.m., the priest pointed to the stained-glass window at the back of the church and noted how the setting sun had hit it at just the right moment to bring out its brilliant colors.

The attendees moved to a community room in the basement of the church for some sandwiches and beverages and for a viewing of a slide show Brian McCorry had created of photos of Mary Ann and her family over the years set to a piano rendition of “My Wild Irish Rose.” I’ll try to post the slide show to this blog if I can figure it out.

Later the party reconvened to a hotel where many of the McCorrys were staying for more reminiscing, picture-taking and some imbibing. ;) Aunt Mary Ann will be missed but these gatherings reinforce the family ties we’ve all enjoyed over the years.

Next, I’ll write about the other family gathering of Mullinses for the high school graduation of our nephew Casey George Mullins.

Robert Mullins

Obituary in Quincy newspaper for Aunt Mary Ann

The Quincy Herald Whig published the obituary for our Aunt Mary Ann McCorry and you can view it online here. The post will be up on the site until June 6 and there is an option for you to sign a guest book and add your comments.
Here's an excerpt from the obit:

"Mrs. McCorry thoroughly enjoyed volunteering for various organizations in each community she lived. She was active in parish committees, served as Den mother for her sons' Cub Scout pack, led the cookie drive for her daughters' Girl Scout troop and worked at her children's swim meets. Once her children left home, her volunteer work continued as she involved herself in the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County, the St. Mary's Hospital Guild and mentored students in the Quincy public schools."
 

I'll be at the memorial service in Quincy Friday night and will post something as soon as I can.

Robert Mullins

Sr. Acquinice Tribute to Mary Ann

 Neither Sr. Acquinice nor Sr.Benedicta will be able to make it to Aunt Mary Ann McCorry’s memorial service May 17 in Quincy, Ill., but Sr. A wrote a note to me and asked me to post it here on the blog:

“We all unite with the McCorrys on the loss of their mom. Mary Ann surely had her share of suffering. I always quote her from the Faith & Family get-together in 1986, where she said, ‘We will remember this when we can’t meet at wakes and funerals.’

“Sr. Benedict is still with us,” Rita continues. “She had pneumonia about two months ago but she pulled through it once again. On May 21^st, Eleanor will celebrate her 95^th birthday.”

Sr. Acquinice invited all to send Sr. Benedicta a birthday card to this address:

400 W. Sullivan Road

Aurora, Ill. 60506

Love to all, (Rita) Sr. Acquinice

The photo is of Sr. Acquinice at the cousins reunion at the Schield's cottage near Neillsville. To those of you planning to travel to Quincy, I look forward to seeing you all there. If you haven’t e-mailed me or Brian McCorry that you’re planning to come, please do so because Brian needs to get an approximate head count to plan for food for the reception. Right now we’re expecting a total of 7 or 8 people to come from the Jonas, Mullins and Schield families.

Best wishes to all,

Robert Mullins

Shout-out to Uncle Bud

Not all of you are on Facebook so I wanted to share with you on the blog this posting by Sarah Jonas. When her father died in December 2011, his body was donated to the Medical College of Wisconsin. The college recently held a memorial service for all the people who donated their bodies to medical study. Also included in her post were a couple of vintage photos of Bud and his wife Teresa. Enjoy.
This is what Sarah wrote:

Most of you know that my Dad donated his body to the Medical College of Wisconsin...We just went to a memorial service given by the students who were able to benefit from these donations. It was so thoughtfully done and so tasteful, my Dad would be so proud to know that his donation was able to help educate and inspire real life medical students and one day possibly help other generations. My Dad taught me a lot by just saying one word. PARTICIPATE. He has done it again. Love you Dad.

Update on services for Aunt Mary Ann

Brian McCorry provided me an update on plans for a memorial service for his mother, Mary Ann McCorry, May 17 in Quincy, Ill.

The service begins at 6:00 p.m. CDT (an hour later than previously announced) at the Church of Saint Peter. It’ll be followed by a reception at the church.

Brian asked me to ask you to RSVP to ME whether you are coming and how many people will be in your party. They need as accurate a count as they can get to prepare for the reception. Please write to me at my Gmail account, mullico [at] gmail.com. (I don’t like to put my e-mail address with the @ symbol on the site because it attracts spammers.)

Brian has offered to help find hotels, but here’s a good place to start. BTW, when searching, make sure you’re searching in Quincy, Ill., not Quincy, Mass. ;) Some of my search results showed hotels near Boston.

By the way, I am planning to fly to Milwaukee to attend Aunt Mary Ann’s funeral in Quincy on the 17^th and our nephew Casey George Mullins’ high school graduation Sunday the 19^th in Milwaukee.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks, despite the circumstances of Aunt Mary Ann’s passing.

Robert Mullins