MULLEN, Anna "Madonna" 1919-2010
MULLEN, BLANKENHEIM, CASTLE, SHELEY, HOLSCHLAG, POTTER, FINCH, DOWNEY
Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 11/13/2010 at 13:17:08
[Waterloo Courier, Sunday, June 27, 2010]
Madonna Mullen, who spent her 45-year business career working for Sears Roebuck & Co., passed away on June 20, 2010 at age 91. She had been a resident of Friendship Village for ten years, moving there from her home on Byron Avenue.
A memorial Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Edward's Catholic Church. Visitation at the church will precede the service, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Inurnment will be at 1:30 p.m. in Calvary Cemetery, New Hampton.
Ms. Mullen is survived by one sister, Jeanette Blankenheim of Pine Grove, Calif., and 20 nieces and nephews, including Fran Downey Guild of Waterloo, Sharon Potter Klages of Hudson, and Frank Holschlag of New Hampton.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Katie Mullen of New Hampton; six sisters: Virginia Castle, Marguerite Sheley, Lora Holschlag, Katherine Potter, Eleanor Finch and Alice Downey; a niece and two nephews.
Ms. Mullen was born May 26, 1919, in Lawler. She was baptized Anna Madonna, but never used her first name. The family moved from a farm near Lawler to New Hampton, and she graduated from St. Joseph's School and New Hampton High School.
After graduating in 1936, she moved to Chicago to live with a sister and to seek work. She was hired by a department store there for the holiday season, but recalled being laid off via telegram on Christmas Eve as the holiday rush ended. After a six-month hunt, she landed a job in the accounts payable department of Sears Roebuck, the beginning of a career that would end with her retirement from Sears in 1982. Ms. Mullen was transferred to the Waterloo Sears store in 1943 as head cashier, and later was named supervisor of the store's new accounting department.
Preparing end-of-the-month reports prevented her from taking many long trips during her working years, but she made up for it in retirement, visiting places from Australia to Taiwan. Her other interests included bowling, fishing, cooking, collecting crystal, and doing paper-cutting art projects. She was a long-time member of St. Edward's Catholic Church, and for a time delivered birthday cakes from the church to shut-in members.
Ms. Mullen was a strong, independent woman who prided herself on standing on her own two feet. Deciding in middle age to learn to drive, she bought a car before getting a driver's license, and had a relative drive her to the test so the examiner wouldn't know she'd been driving alone.
She also prided herself on her Irish heritage. She had visited Ireland, loved St. Patrick's Day, and displayed Irish crystal in the glass case outside her Friendship Village apartment.
Hagarty-Waychoff-Grarup Funeral Service on West Ridgeway is in charge of arrangements.
Memorials may be directed to Cedar Valley Hospice or St. Edward Catholic Church.
A special thank you to the kind and caring staff at Lakeview Landing.
Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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