Marilyn Briggs Ellermann, fortified by the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church passed away Monday, June 12, 2023, at age 94.
Marilyn, the daughter of Charles M. Briggs and Dorothy Gordley Briggs of Mt.
Sterling, Illinois was born April 5, 1929. She received her education at the University of Illinois and Washington University. She worked for ten years for the Division of Family Services in foster care.
She converted to Catholicism in 1950 and has been a devout Catholic and defender of the faith.
She was a member of The Lord's Work Prayer Group for over forty years, made three pilgrimages to the Holy Land and was also a consecrated member of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales.
In 2008, she wrote a book on the life of Delphine Madill and the following year published an extensive history of her family. A copy of the former, Delphine Madill, In Her Own Words, is in the Library of Congress and the latter, Looking Back, A Family History, is in the Mt. Sterling Illinois Public Library. She also wrote Reflections in 2017, Selected Works in 2018 as well as other essays and poems. In 2020 she wrote Death in the Family, a tribute to her late former husband, Charles F. Ellermann.
She is survived by six children: Stephen, Michael (Audrey), Peter (Nancy), Gregory (Nancy), Frances O'Neal (Richard N.), and Andrew, fifteen grandchildren and twenty-four great grandchildren.
A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Peter Catholic Church, 243 W. Argonne Ave., Kirkwood, Wednesday, June 14th, 10:00 am. Private interment will be in the Mt. Sterling City Cemetery, Mt.
Sterling, Illinois, Thursday, June 15th.
Memorial contributions may be made to Franciscan University of Steubenville, https://giving.franciscan.edu/give-now/