Sister Mary Ann Mulligan,

(S. Ellen James)

Kind, joyful, music lover, visionary

Mary Ann and twin James were born August 31, 1924, to Philip and Mary (Maley) Mulligan of Denver,Colorado. Brother Pat was two and sister, Sue, arrived about 14 years later. Mary Ann attended St. Francis de Sales through grade and high school. She remembers her parents as being very strict.

In 1942, she entered into the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and was received in 1943 as Sister Ellen James. Her bachelor’s degree in music education was from Fontbonne College (1957). She also earned a master’s degree in music education from Duquesne University (1961), and a doctorate in the same year from the University of Colorado (1973).

S. Ellen James began her ministry in elementary schools, teaching kindergarten at St. Philip Neri, St. Louis (1945); music at St. Cecilia, Peoria, Illinois (1946); and kindergarten followed by private music instruction at St. Mary of the Assumption, Waco, Texas (1948). S. Ellen returned to St. Louis to teach private music lessons at Saints John and James (1955). Music at St. Mary Magdalene was next (1957) and also, beginning in 1959, she served as assistant novice director and director of the novitiate choir.

Sister Shawn Madigan shares:

Mary Ann was my piano and organ teacher … at Carondelet ... many times I did not "practice" piano and organ up to Mary Ann's expectation. I would weekly plead my case of being ill prepared and I could see hints of a smile of my dramatic gestures even though I knew a lecture about using time etc. was on the way… [In] later years, we had many laughs about life; relationships that bring a smile, memories that make the daily things bring joy, etc.

Sister Ann Pace remembers "her common sense and love of us as novices. [She] was wide open to progress in our community and world, interested in all that was going on around her.”

In 1961, S. Ellen taught choral at the Academy of Our Lady High School until moving to Kansas City, Missouri, to join the faculty at Avila College (1967). Then she became a student at the University of Colorado (Boulder) where she did her doctoral research (1969). Next she ministered as an assistant professor of music at Georgia State University (Atlanta, Georgia, 1971), followed by returning to St. Louis to chair the music department at Fontbonne College (1977). In 1986, she spent the year as program development coordinator at Chateau Carondelet.

Barbara Peach, a former member and dear friend of S. Mary Ann, recalls special times together of taking trips— driving in the Colorado mountains, a trip to Canada, a river cruise in France and a train trip in Arizona. "One trip I will never forget was the time when we took a trip to Yellowstone with the St. Louis Zoo in the cold of January to observe and count wolves. Oh, so very cold.”

In 1987, S. Mary Ann began a ministry as the Colorado development director, working from Carondelet until 1995 when she returned to Colorado. Sister Mary Ann Nestel, one-time province development director, remembers S. Mary Ann’s “diligent efforts” with donors in Colorado. “She [also] initiated a program of taking out life insurance for sisters who were missioned in Denver," she says. Ministry at the Denver Public Library was next until 2000, when she decided to do private piano lessons. S. Mary Ann also was director of music at Our Lady of the Presentation Parish in 2002.

“I loved the day she planned for us all to walk the walk of our Denver CSJ history, says S. Marion Weinzapfel. "We went to Central City, had a picnic on the grounds where our Academy had stood ... And on trips to Georgetown, always pointed out the site of the hospital and school and how we especially served the Italian miners.”

S. Mary Ann retired to St. Louis in 2012, moving to Nazareth Living Center in 2013.

By Sister Helen Oates