Emme O. Connelly

Emme Onak Connelly, 87, passed away peacefully on Monday, October 27, 2025, at Marquette (Indianapolis), where she had lived for many years – a bittersweet end to a long, interesting, and blessed life. Emme was the beloved wife of the late Francis S. "Mike" Connelly. Born in Aurora, Illinois, on January 6, 1938, she was the daughter of the late Dmitrie (Demeter) Onak and Julia Fodor Onak, both immigrants from Eastern Europe. Emme was the youngest of their eight children.

Emme’s formative years were spent in and around Aurora, where she grew up speaking Romanian at home, and where her large family was part of the wonderful St. Michael Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church community. She was a bright student who skipped a grade while in elementary school at St. Michael’s, and later attended Madonna High School in Aurora (closed in 1968). Unbeknownst to Emme at the time, while in high school she was classmates with two sisters of her future husband – the late Jill Connelly Oberweis and Jackie Connelly Peterson. In true “what a small world” fashion, a few years later Emme would meet her classmates’ brother Mike while commuting to Chicago by train for Nurse’s Training at Mercy Center (Mike was a regular commuter to DePaul Law School from Naperville).

Emme and Mike hit it off, fell in love, and married in October 1962. Eleven months later in September 1963 the first of their five children was born. Two more were born while the growing family lived in Chicago suburbs Oak Park and River Forest. The fourth and fifth were born in Indianapolis, where Emme and Mike had moved in 1966 for Mike’s work, and where they continued to live for the remainder of their years.

Emme was an active member of the St. Luke Catholic Church community; her faith was an essential part of her life. She sang in the choir and was a Lector on Sundays, and she taught Electives (Baking – very popular class) to 7th and 8th graders at the school. Emme even successfully advocated for plaid uniform pants to be approved as an alternative to the more traditional plaid uniform skirts that girls were required to wear to school at St. Luke’s in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s.

Before marriage and motherhood, Emme had enjoyed her career as a Registered Nurse, working in hospitals in Chicago and Fort Worth, TX. Emme was a woman of many talents, and she applied those talents to her important role at the center of family life. She knit, sewed, and crocheted, and took real pleasure in beautifying her and her family’s surroundings with just the right paint color, or a carefully chosen fabric for reupholstering a couch, or a repurposed antique bench from a yard sale.

Each year around Halloween when her children were very young, Emme regularly displayed an incredible level of creativity and inventiveness when it came to making DIY Halloween costumes for them (the Packing Crate, the Jolly Green Giant, and the Easter Egg are 3 standout masterpieces that were worn for multiple years and were much-loved by her children - and talked about to this day).

An adventurous cook and an accomplished baker, Emme made sure that both her daughters and sons knew their way around the kitchen. She loved plants and flowers, knowing nearly all by name, and she shared stories about working at her brother Russell’s flower shop back in the day. Not long after moving into the family house on Illinois Street close to St. Luke’s, Emme had the idea to plant one new tree in the yard for each of her 5 children. Those trees are tall, strong, and beautiful today.

When Emme learned that she had Multiple Sclerosis while in her forties, she gracefully accepted the unwelcome news and seemed determined to live as well as she could even with that difficult diagnosis. Emme was truly blessed in that she had many active and happy years while living with MS, many of those years in complete remission. Emme’s family would like to thank the amazing, dedicated staff at Marquette for providing excellent care to Emme - in her final years, in particular. It is difficult to overstate Emme’s family’s appreciation for the warmth, care, and expertise of all Marquette staff who cared for and loved her.

Emme is survived by her five children: daughter Anne Connelly, son Thomas Connelly, daughter Maureen Connelly, daughter Mary Beth Connelly, and son Patrick Connelly, grandchildren Patrick Flood, Madeleine Stamper (Flood), Michael Flood, Thomas Flood, Grace Westover Erickson, Luke Fabry, Lex Fabry, and great grandchildren Lucy Flood, Theodore Stamper, Rhys Stamper, and many cherished nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

Remembrances can be made through contributions to:

Marquette

Attn: MEAF (Marquette Employee Appreciation Fund)

8140 Township Line Road

Indianapolis, IN 46260

For tax deductible purposes please provide name and return address.