Marleen Sullivan Research Paper

Have you ever heard the phrases “Holy jumping Hannah!” “Mother of Love!” “God be good to them” or “I’m gonna do what the devil never did”? If you have, I am almost sure you have met Marleen Sullivan. She is a Michigan native, and the mother of four and grandmother of fourteen! Marleen is also a very strong Catholic, and goes to church almost every day. Her life is pretty remarkable, and she always has an interesting story to tell.

In the early morning of Sunday, March 31, 1940, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Ellen Evangeline Donahue Willett and Joseph Ferdinand Willett’s first daughter, Theresa Marleen Sullivan was born. Ellen had always wanted a daughter named Marleen, but the custom for Catholics then was to name their children after a saint. The Willetts were a strong Catholic family, so they decided to name her Theresa, after Saint Theresa the Little Flower. She has gone by Marleen for all of her life. For the first five years of her life, she lived in a terrace, a type of house made up of six apartments. After that, she moved to the house in Detroit where she grew up in. It was a “normal-sized house”, with three bedrooms, one for her parents, one for her brothers, Ted, who was eight years older than her, and John, who goes by Jack, who was five years older than her, and one for her. In her bedroom,

Their first was Kevin Timothy, who was born on May 20, 1966. Next was Patrick Joseph “PJ”, born on July 9, 1967. The youngest son was Timothy “Tim” Michael, who was born on May 25, 1970. Finally, their only daughter, Tricia Ellen, was born on March 5, 1973. She says, “They’ve all been successful and went to college. They have married well and have children that are all wonderful and healthy.” She is referring to her fourteen grandchildren: Courtney, Karly, Josh, Ellie, Michael, Megan (me), Kimble, Deirdre, Connor, Sean, Claire, Molly, Kathleen, and Kate. She enjoys getting together with her family for holidays and other