Eagan, MN - Maureen Cannon passed away peacefully on May 11, 2026, drawing her last breath while listening to the Irish music she loved.

Maureen, born July 1, 1929 in Gladstone, Michigan, grew up as the sixth of eight children in an Irish Catholic family, and, hailing from the Upper Peninsula, was proud to be a "Yooper." The Cannons lived through the Great Depression and, like so many other families, were very poor. (Maureen often heard her mother muttering, "so many mouths to feed," as she cooked their meals.) Her father worked for the Soo Line Railroad as a Locomotive Fireman and later as an Engineer on the route between Sault St. Marie, MI and Minneapolis, MN, and the family depended on his family rail pass benefit for all travel.

When Maureen was in her junior year of high school, she fractured her spine while tobogganing with her Girl Scout troop. She was hospitalized for several months, so while she wore a purple and white gown and marched with her classmates in 1947, her diploma was unsigned until she completed the coursework later that year and officially graduated. After graduating, she worked in the nearby town of Escanaba as a receptionist/accounting clerk until 1950, when she received a call from her sister Joan. Joan was getting her Master's Degree in Public Health Nursing from the U of M after discharging from the US Army and urged Maureen to move to Minneapolis and apply to be the Administrative Secretary to the Dean of Women's Residences, a position Maureen received. In 1957, Maureen began volunteering at the Home of the Good Shepherd in St. Paul. She had sought the volunteer position because she had always wanted to work with unwed mothers, but soon learned that troubled teenage girls in residence were not unwed mothers, but teenage delinquents placed there by Juvenile Court. Still, she was drawn to the mission and work of the Good Shepherd Sisters and joined them in 1958. Following her two-year Novitiate training and profession of Vows, Sister Mary of St. Peter (Maureen's chosen religious name) was assigned to be a "Group Mother" for 21 girls. She attended college during this time, receiving a degree in Social Work. Vatican II, which took place between 1962-1965, was incorporated into the college courses and changes in liturgy and religious life were integrated into the Good Shepherd lifestyle and the work with the girls. The world-wide Order of the Good Shepherd discontinued being a "semi-cloistered" Order, which aligned with changes taking place in Social Work and allowed Sister Mary to take the girls off campus for recreation and life experiences.

Unfortunately, the Order of the Good Shepherd suspended these changes in 1972 and ordered a return to the fundamental lifestyle and religious practices of pre-Vatican II. In 1973, faced with a decision to return to traditions and practices that did not align with her personal beliefs or that of the larger Catholic Church or terminate her Vows, Sister Mary accepted the Order's invitation to leave the religious life of a Sister of the Good Shepherd, her heart heavy.

After leaving the religious order, she helped to establish a group home for delinquent teenage boys in Bird Island, MN and served as program director for the next three years. She then accepted a position with the MN Department of Human Services in St. Paul, where she developed multidisciplinary teams in each Minnesota county to provide guidance with challenging child abuse cases. In 1986, the law creating The Children's Trust Fund (a child abuse primary prevention program) was passed, and Maureen served as program director until she retired in 1997. At her retirement party, with her characteristic broad (and somewhat mischievous) grin, she summed up her career: "It's been an interesting and great life!"

Maureen lived a full and rich retirement. As had been true her entire life, volunteer work was a cornerstone: she taught English as a second language to refugees and immigrants; enhanced reading skills of 1st grade students with the DARTS program; and traveled to South Africa four times with Arm in Arm in Africa, a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in South Minneapolis. Maureen also invested in her connection to family and her Irish heritage, traveling each year to visit cousins in England and Ireland and spending time in the cottage where her grandfather was born and lived until he and his wife immigrated to America in 1883. Although her travels were interrupted when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, she began traveling again as soon as she had recovered and was grateful to remain cancer-free the rest of her life.

Maureen will be remembered for her love of holidays and the beautiful way she decorated her home for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, the 4th of July, and, most of all, Christmas, inviting friends into her home to open the holiday season with her annual Ladies Only Christmas Party. She will be remembered for the joy she found in golf - both as a spectator and a player - and the theatre performances she attended with friends. She will be remembered for her favorite meal: a scotch on the rocks and crabcakes at Jensen's, where her name is etched into a small golden plaque above the booth where she always sat. She will be remembered for her commitment to the community of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church and the work for justice and dignity it advances. She will be remembered for her wry smile, quick wit, and cackling laugh. And, most of all, she will be remembered for the lives she touched with her generosity and kindness.