Agnes Cecilia Mulhern

Agnes Cecilia (McNamara) Mulhern passed away August 29, 2022, at Traditions Assisted Living, Preston, Minn., at the age of 101 and nine months. Agnes was born at home in Belle Creek Township, rural Goodhue County, Minn., on November 12, 1920, the eldest of 10 children born to her parents Mary Leona (O’Reilly) McNamara and Raymond McNamara. Agnes attended country school and then Goodhue High School, graduating in 1939. Agnes helped her parents on the farm during the World War II years. In the later 1940s she moved to Rochester and started work in the medical records section of Mayo Clinic. She met Walter Mulhern at the Pla-Mor Ballroom, and they were married October 12, 1957, at St. Columbkill Catholic Church in Belle Creek. Following marriage, Walt and Agnes purchased a farm in rural Fountain, Minn., where they farmed together until retirement.

Agnes read the newspaper daily, watched the nightly news and kept up with current events. She liked baseball and followed it first on the radio and later on TV. She wrote a daily diary for most of her long life. She enjoyed family history and was proud to be the first descendant on the long listing of her parents’ descendants that now exceeds 370. She was a member of St. Kilian’s Catholic Church and the Church’s Altar Society, and later St. Ignatius Church, and St. Columban’s. She enjoyed the neighborhood birthday club. In their later years Walt and Agnes enjoyed bus trips throughout the United States. Agnes was an active grandmother and loved rocking her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She loved sharing her homemade cookies.

Agnes is survived by her four children: sons John (Julie) and Tim (Dawn) of Fountain, Minn., and daughters Anne (Verne) Comstock and Maureen (Darvin) Schmidt of Wykoff, Minn.; 15 grandchildren: Christi, Mindy, Michael, Melissa, Justin, Jeffrey, Patrick, Joshua, Kyle, Jade, Parker, Kayla, Jace, Neal and Jenna; and 22 great-grandchildren. Agnes is also survived by her siblings, Ralph McNamara, Florence Ryan, Raymond (Marlys) McNamara and Rosamond (Kenneth) Reding, and sister-in-law Kathleen Mulhern.

Agnes was predeceased by her husband Walter, infant great-grandson, siblings Francis McNamara, Cecil McNamara, Joseph McNamara, Marie Lexvold, and Charles McNamara, and many sisters- and brothers-in-law.

A funeral mass for Agnes will be at 2 p.m. on Thursday, September 1, 2022, at St. Columban Catholic Church, 408 Preston St. NW, Preston, Minn., with Father McGrath officiating. Visitation will commence at 12:30 p.m. at the church prior to the service. Burial will be at the St. Kilian’s Church cemetery, rural Wykoff.