Mary Louise Reilly Merickel died with dignity and grace Sept. 4, 2014. She left the world a better place and gifted so many people with her delightful, compassionate and charming personality. She was a great mother and good friend to many. Her sense of humor, her ease at accepting what life threw at her and her propensity to tell little white lies in hopes of making life easier for others was heartening. She will be missed.
She was born Sept. 15, 1920, in Birmingham, Ala., to Rose Nangle and William Reilly. Her father died when she was only 2, leaving behind her two older brothers, William and John, as well. The family then moved back to St. Cloud, Minn., to be close to her mother’s family. The nuns at the College of St. Benedict’s, particularly her aunt, Sister Vivia, were instrumental in helping raise the three children as her mother worked various jobs to support her family. In spite of money being very tight, Mary Louise remembered a joyous childhood with many opportunities for fun and learning. After attending Cathedral High School, she enrolled at the College of St. Benedict’s, where she studied English. Two years later, she took a hiatus in order to help her mother financially. Fortuitously, one of her friends at school, Sally Merickel, found her a job at the Merickel Lumber Mills in Wadena, where Mary Louise met her future husband, Tom Merickel. They were married Aug. 23, 1942, in San Diego, where he was serving in the Navy.
After leaving the military, Tom and Mary Lou moved to Wadena, where they raised 13 children. They led a busy but exciting life, never turning down adventure. They spent time living at Rush Lake during the summer months, converted a school bus into a camper of sorts, loaded the kids in for monthly trips throughout the USA and bought a home in Mexico. After Tom’s death in 1977, Mary Lou moved again, with her three youngest still in school, to St. Cloud and then a few years later to San Diego. Her final months were spent at Home Place, a special care center in Oak Harbor.
She was first and foremost a mother of 13 children but also a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, grandmother, great-grandmother and an inspiration to everyone that had the privilege of knowing her. Mary Lou was a chameleon of sorts in that she could be whomever you needed her to be: confidant, fan, ghost-writer, bridge partner, advocate or driver.
The Catholic Church and education were both very important to her. She was an active volunteer in many of her children’s classes; she had vocabulary words posted around the house, and she even found time to go back to St. Ben’s to complete her degree and graduate in 1974. She made certain that all of her 13 children had at least a bachelor’s degree.
Some of her fun memories include her appearance on “Family Feud” with four of her children. She was one of Richard Dawson’s favorites. She enjoyed politics, historical events as they happened and Irish Cream. She kept her charm and sense of humor close by until the very end. Friends and family are encouraged to imbibe in an Irish toast, give a friend a flower or do a random act of kindness in her memory.
She is survived by her 13 children and their spouses in addition to 24 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Listed below are her children in order of date of birth and their spouses:
Michael Reilly Merickel and spouse Nancy Foster (Oak Harbor), Deborah Merickel (Oak Harbor), Kathy Merickel Moreno and spouse David (Berkeley, Calif.), Sally Merickel Maxwell and spouse Don (San Diego), Teri Merickel (San Diego), Melissa Merickel and spouse Jim Somers (Oak Harbor), Peggy Merickel and spouse Scott McLaughlin (Fargo, N.D.), Polly Merickel and spouse Jim Poe (San Diego), Tommy Merickel and spouse Laura (Shoreview, Minn.), Harry Merickel and spouse Kris (Battle Lake, Minn.), MaryJo Merickel and spouse David Gross (Bloomington, Minn.), Maggie Merickel and spouse Julie Day (San Diego), and Casey Merickel (Miami Beach, Fla.)
