NAME(S) ON TILE:                 PATRICK AND NORA CANNON

EILEEN, PATRICIA, LAVERNE

DONOR NAME(S):                   EILEEN CANNON ADAMIAK

Patrick (born in 1891 in County Donegal, Ireland) met Nora Agnes Houlihan (born 1897) on the wall of the Highland Park, across from the car barn, while awaiting his streetcar to arrive.  He was a motorman with the Pittsburgh Railway Company.  Nora had just arrived from County Kerry, Ireland.

They were married on May 17, 1922, in the “old” Sacred Heart Church by Father Malady who sidled up to Nora and whispered, “Smile, look like something important is happening!“  They subsequently had three daughters and thirteen grandchildren.

Eileen’s two sons took graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Industrial Administration while her three daughters became graduates of Penn State University.  Patricia’s son (Mrs. Robert McMinn, Jr.) took his graduate degree from the University of Michigan, and her daughter from Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business. Laverne’s eldest son Stephen was graduated from the Air Force Academy and served as a Captain in the Air Force - piloting a Jet Fighter plane.  Laverne is Mrs. David W. O’Diorne, Jr., (U.S. Army Colonel Ret’d.) - four sons and two daughters.

In her later years Nora (“Nonie”) served as a Red Cross “Grey Lady” during WW II.  She was past president of Ladies Auxiliary of David I. Rankin Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 234 in Wilkinsburg.  A Grand Matron of the Catholic Daughters of America (West Palm Beach, Florida) and three times President of the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion Post of the Palm Beaches, Florida.

“Nonie’s” work with the Armed Forces patients was based on Patrick’s service in WW I in the US Army Tank Corps in France.  They were true patriots of the United States.