Ella Mae McGuire

Ella Mae (Frass) McGuire completed her life with us peacefully, with joy and smiles in the early hours of February 14th. Ella Mae was preceded in death by her husband, William F. McGuire M.D., her son, William F. McGuire Jr., and her sisters Teresa Weber and Esther Frass. Ella Mae began her life in Canadian, Texas on the 8th of November, 1927, and grew up on one of the largest ranches in Texas. Ella Mae loved her card games, particularly playing with her partner, Bessie Letourneau, with whom she won a months’ long bridge tournament at Blessed Sacrament. Ella Mae introduced her nine children to art and travel, taking some of them to all forty-eight states.(Sorry Alaska and Hawaii.) She saw all nine of them graduate college, with five of them earning graduate degrees. Though she did not finish college, she was accepted to Stephen’s College at the age of fourteen. During World War ll, Ella Mae left college to work for the Kansas City Southern railroad where she was “bonded for $1,000,000,” as a courier making bank deposits. Who would have imagined that for a young woman from an isolated ranch in Texas Panhandle? In addition to being a past active member of the Monican Circle, the Serra Club, and the Legion of Mary, Ella Mae generously supported many charities and religious orders. Ella Mae was fun! Early in her marriage, she and her husband enjoyed dancing. Bill and she were quite the dashing couple. She also loved jokes, a few pranks, and quoting Mae West: “When I am good, I am very good, and when I am bad, I am even better!” Yet Ella Mae was very wholesome and devout, daily praying the Rosary, the Angelus, the Divine Mercy Chaplets and more prayers. And how Ella Mae loved her family, and they loved her. While still quite lucid, all of her children and many grand children and great grand children sent videos, made phone calls and video conferences that Ella Mae described her last days as “A love fest!” Ella Mae is survived by her sister, Bette McDaniel, and her children, Madeline McGuire Goletz, of Madison, Connecticut; Camille McGuire, of Wichita; Emily McGuire (Steve Yost,) of Grantville, Kansas; Eileen Lovell (Mark) of Pittsburgh, Tim McGuire, of Wichita; Sharon Schultheis (Udo) of Macomb, Michigan; Michelle McGuire Hook, of Dallas, Texas; and John McGuire of Arlington, Virginia. Ella Mae is also survived by twenty-one grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren, along with many nieces and nephews. Ella Mae enjoyed the best care possible by the staff at St. Teresa’s hospital, her family nurses, Jane McGuire and Miriam Milligan, and the staff of Harry Hynes Hospice. Thank you all so much! The Rosary will be Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 6:00 PM at Downing and Lahey East Mortuary, and the Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated this Friday, February 19, 2021 at 11:00, at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Please consider making a donation to the Center of Hope in Ella Mae’s honor.