Eleanor Sullivan

Eleanor Sullivan, 103 of La Crosse, died Friday, December 5, 2025 at Riverside Transitional Care in La Crosse.

Eleanor Sullivan was born in La Crosse in 1922, the second of eight children of Dr. Archibald and Ellen (Halpin) Skemp. A graduate of Aquinas High School, she completed her B.A. in English at Rosary College and her M.A. in Journalism at Marquette University. During WWII, she worked as editor at an agricultural trade newspaper. After the war, she traveled in France then moved to Chicago to work in publishing. There she met Arthur Sullivan, a war veteran and construction worker, through their involvement in the Catholic Worker Movement. They married in Chicago in 1952.

After the birth of their first child, the family moved to the La Crosse area where Art farmed for several years in John’s Coulee before becoming a teacher at Cashton High School. Elly also taught at Cashton High while their family grew to seven children. In 1968, the family moved to Rice Lake where Art taught at Western Wisconsin Technical Institute and Elly took care of the family and was active in Right to Life, the Rice Lake Food Co-op, and St. Joseph’s Parish.

All the while, Elly kept writing, mostly poetry, which she contributed to several publications and printed in two collections. Art and Elly kept their ties to John’s Coulee and La Crosse, spending their summers at Lorandale, a farmhouse in the coulee where they eventually moved after Art retired in the early 1980’s. Although she intended never to leave her beloved country home, even after Art’s passing in 1998, Elly eventually moved into assisted living at the age of 99. She was cared for and befriended by the residents and staff of Riverside Transitional Care for most of her final four years of life.

Elly is survived by her brother Samuel, her children Joseph (Bobbie), Mary, Bernadette, Gerard (Marilyn), John and Grace, and two grandchildren, James and Amelia. Her daughter Catherine preceded her in death in 2006.

A Memorial Mass will be held at 1 pm on Saturday, Dec. 13 at St. Joseph Ridge Catholic Church, St. Joseph, Wis. Memorials to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of La Crosse.