Maureen Catherine Donnelly
DONNELLY, TAYLOR, LATHROP, SEARLE, FLAKE, GILLFILLAN
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 12/22/2022 at 09:30:28
Maureen Catherine Donnelly (1944 - 2022) devoted her life to fighting for others.
She died unexpectedly Monday, Nov. 14, of natural causes.
Ms. Donnelly, 78, of Iowa City, was a lot of things in her life: an activist, a union leader, a political candidate, a social worker, a role model, an artist.
In 2015 Ms. Donnelly was named to the Johnson County Democrats Hall of Fame, something that would have definitely annoyed the Good Old Boys who ran things when Donnelly — a young, anti-war, feminist, working mom — came to Iowa City and dove head first into local politics.
A transplant from the New England seaside, she nevertheless became a mainstay in Iowa Democratic circles — serving on the party’s state central committee and twice representing Iowa as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.
Donnelly — then known by her married name Maureen Donnelly Taylor — later took on the county old guard in 1984 by running for Clerk of Court.
While she didn’t win, she did have the last word. She was part of a group of liberal Democratic women who changed the political face of Johnson County.
As a girl and young woman in East Hartford, Connecticut, she was passionate about writing and art — winning a New York Times writing contest in high school. That passion led her to photography, and her work was featured numerous times in professional art shows.
She discovered her passion for politics as an undergraduate at the University Connecticut. She was a professional social worker and later served in a variety of roles at the City of Iowa City and the University of Iowa.
She is survived by her daughters Anne-Marie Taylor Lathrop (Daniel) of Iowa City and Shiona Searle (Greg) of Vernon Hills, Illinois; grandchildren Alexis Flake of Washington, D.C., Scott Flake of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Sophie Lathrop of Iowa City; lifelong friends Eileen Klinger, of Tallahassee, Florida, and Martha Schwartz, of Simsbury, Connecticut; and the University of Connecticut Huskies.
She was preceded in death by her mother Ethel Gilfillan Donnelly, father William P. Donnelly, brother Thomas Donnelly and sister-in-law Carol Donnelly.
A mass in her honor will be held at 10 a.m. Friday Nov. 25 at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Iowa City followed by a gathering for friends and relatives at the church. The service will be live streamed on St. Mary's YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpkVO3tvRiWu-Dt_HOVsQzg/streams
In lieu of flowers, please donate to either the Emma Goldman Clinic or League of Women Voters of Johnson County with this GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/eede5ac7
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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