Culligan, Mary Ann

1920 - 2016  (95 years)    Has 8 ancestors and 10 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Culligan, Mary Ann
  Born	25 Dec 1920	Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA
  Gender	Female
  News Mention	20 Aug 2007
  Mercury News - Patty Fisher
  Newspaper article; Fisher: One woman, two hands, many smiles By Patty Fisher Mercury News Article Launched: 08/20/2007 01:33:53 AM PDT Mary Solie is a knitting machine. She spends several hours each day on the "knitting couch" in her sunny Palo Alto living room, turning out multicolored afghans, the kind you want to curl up in to watch TV or wrap around a sleeping child. Solie, who's 86 and has been knitting since she was a girl, went into afghan production decades ago. She has made afghans for her three children, her five grandchildren and her three great grandchildren. She has made them for friends and neighbors. In 1993, when everyone she knew had all the afghans they could possibly use, she started knitting them for the patients at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and then for the families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford while their children are in the hospital. So far, she has donated more than 700 afghans, including a few in red, white and blue made specially for firefighters after Sept. 11. "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have my knitting," she said. "Go out of my mind, I guess." I stopped by to see Solie last week, after a friend of hers told me about the afghan operation. I had to meet this woman, who has given so much of her time and talent to so many people. She had just delivered a load of 10 afghans to Ronald McDonald House, so she didn't have very many on hand. But she showed me a green one, in a pattern of alternating squares of knit and purl stitches, that she had made several years ago for her late husband, Allen. "In the evening, he'd sit with his crossword puzzles and I'd knit," she said. "It was so relaxing." Cheery stripes I asked her to show me a work in progress, so she sat down on her knitting couch, not to be confused with her "reading couch" across the room. She picked up a half-finished blanket in cheery lavender and yellow stripes. It takes Solie about 10 days and two pounds of yarn - $12 worth - to make an afghan. She knits for a couple of hours in the morning after breakfast, in the evening when she's watching TV and in the middle of the day "when I'm avoiding the things I should be doing." Her granddaughter has been after her to knit sweaters, but she prefers to stick to afghans, which don't require that much concentration. "You don't have to count stitches," she said, as her graceful fingers turned out row after perfect row. The only tricky part is making the stripes. She showed me how she ties the two different colors of yarn together and then weaves the loose ends back into the row so they don't show. Gifts for families Pat Tamaras at Ronald McDonald House said Solie's afghans make great gifts for families who stay at the house, especially those with babies. "We accept them graciously," Tamaras said. "In fact, we have a whole closet full of them." When I told Solie that Ronald McDonald House had a stockpile of her afghans, she looked troubled. "I must be giving them too many," she said. Does that mean it's time to cut back on production? Hardly. "I think I just need to find a new place to donate them," she said to me. "Do you have any suggestions?" I thought about the homeless shelters I've visited over the years, the group homes and battered women's shelters. I could imagine how delighted a homeless mother would be to wrap her child in one of Solie's lovely afghans. So I called Kristin Chandler at InnVision, which runs the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto and an emergency shelter for families in Menlo Park. She said she'd be more than happy to take Solie's excess inventory. "The families who come to us have very little of their own, so we welcome donations," she said. "Afghans are always special - especially if they are handmade."
  Died	12 Jun 2016
  Person ID	I129	1FamilyTree
  Last Modified	13 Jun 2016

  
  

  Father	Culligan, George Bernard,   b. 27 Dec 1894, Algoma, Kewaunee, Wisconsin, USA ,   d. 6 Feb 1949, Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA  (Age 54 years)
  Mother	Wagner, Ella Emma Wilhelmina,   b. 16 Jul 1898, Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA ,   d. 10 Nov 1996, Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA  (Age 98 years)
  Family ID	F1599	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Solie, Allen Randolf,   b. 30 Sep 1916, Stanley, Chippewa, Wisconsin, USA ,   d. 17 Apr 1996, Palo Alto, San Mateo, California, USA  (Age 79 years)
  Married	7 Jun 1942	Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA
  Children	+ 1. Solie, Kristin Mary + 2. Solie, Kim,   b. 25 Oct 1947, Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA ,   d. 15 Jun 1985, Nevada City, Nevada, California, USA  (Age 37 years)   3. Solie, Kerry Ann
  Last Modified	1 May 2010
  Family ID	F113	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map	Load the map	Born - 25 Dec 1920 - Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA Married - 7 Jun 1942 - Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set