Built family around church, activism
July 19, 1927-May 1, 2015
She and her late husband of 65 years had nine children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so one would understand if Mary Ellen Quinn focused her energies with family.
And she did, but that didn’t limit her.
Ms. Quinn was always active in her Catholic parishes and strongly embraced what the church called its “consistent ethic of life,” taking action to oppose war, capital punishment, abortion and economic oppression.
Ms. Quinn was a founding member of Pittsburgh North People for Peace in the 1980s, when it was formed in opposition to the U.S. nuclear escalation and military involvement in Central America. She stayed active in the group through the years as it addressed warfare in Iraq and elsewhere.
“Preserving the future, making a future for all children and her own, was a primary commitment of hers,” said Mary Sheehan, chairwoman of the group.
Ms. Quinn, of McCandless, who died Friday at 87, took part in peace vigils into her 80s. When her health eventually prevented her from taking part in such vigils, she appreciated hearing news about them.
“She didn’t let a lot of grass grow under her feet,” said her son, Paul Quinn, with whom she lived in McCandless in her last years. Her late husband used to joke that the couple had only two expenses — donations to various activist causes and gifts for their grandchildren.
“It was amazing that she raised that many children and was still very involved in church activities,” Ms. Sheehan said. “Church was her primary focus, and her peace commitment went right along with that. It came very directly out of her faith involvement in the Catholic Church.”
Family lore includes the time when her son, an attorney, was heading to an appointment in the City-County Building — and saw his elderly mother out front, protesting on behalf of a living wage for workers. She also protested a 2002 visit of President George W. Bush to Neville Island, with the family half-joking that she was probably on a government watch list.
She and her husband, James Leo Quinn, who died last year, raised their children first in Monroeville and later in a large house on Perrysville Avenue in Observatory Hill.
She was raised in Sharpsville, Pa., and studied nursing at Mount Mercy College. In 1948, she and her husband, a steelworker and U.S. Marine veteran, were married, and the babies followed soon after.
She was active in various groups in her parishes and, after her children had grown, she earned a degree in sociology from La Roche College.
Ms. Quinn is survived by seven other children, Kathleen McLane, John Quinn, Joseph Quinn, James Quinn, Mary Ann Murray, Margaret Rosenzweig and Ellen McCabe; 21 grandchildren; and eight greatgrandchildren.
Calling hours are from 24 and 7-9 p.m. today at Simons Funeral Home, 7720 Perry Highway. The funeral Mass will be at St. John Neumann Parish, 2230 Rochester Road, at 10 a.m. Wednesday.