Michaela Eileen Christ, age 88, of Indianapolis, Indiana passed away on Sunday, June 9, 2024. Eileen was born in Indianapolis in 1935.
Eileen attended St Joan of Arc school and graduated from the very first class of grade schoolers at Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1949 and graduated from St Agnes Academy in 1953, attending one year at Purdue before family illness required her to come home and help.
She gained employment at the marketing division of the Indianapolis Star and News, and this became her university, giving her an advanced degree not found in any college. The talented people she was fortunate to work with in the mid 1950’s like Howard (Howdy) Wilcox, Jr. helped to create such institutions that we take for granted today such as the 500 Festival and the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Game. Her time working at the Star gave ‘Mike’ (as her Star coworkers called her ) such great joy and an unmatched life experience.
She met the love of her life, Judge John C. Christ when he asked her to go out on a date to a small party held at a colleague’s house. The party ran out of ice and John and Eileen volunteered to go out to get more. 65 years later, that party is still waiting for the drinks to get cold.
Eileen and John enjoyed a wonderful life together, happily married for 63 years, travelling the United States and all over the world, but most significantly to visit and reconnect with her family in Italy and his family in Greece.
Eileen was dedicated to public service and, for a time in Indianapolis, if you ran a charity, you sought her talents. She was on the local boards of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Indianapolis Urban League, Catholic Social Services, and the St. Vincent’s Hospital Guild. She chaired the Channel 20 auction supporting public television and co-chaired the Cathedral Shamrauction. She was an active volunteer and parishioner at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church while she was healthy.
Our mother was a phenomenal cook and loved to prepare the Northern Italian dishes taught to her by her mother Gene Gatti O’Connor and the Greek dishes she learned to perfection. If you stopped by her house, you were sure to receive some gourmet dish or fabulous dessert that she just happened to whip up. I know that everyone says their mom is the best cook ever; I am sorry to tell you all that it was, in fact, our mom who was number 1.
She loved to watch and attend sports and was a huge Colts fan (well, more specifically a huge Peyton Manning fan…not sure she ever truly forgave the Horseshoe for letting #18 go…) One of her many gifts to us was her love for Notre Dame football and we always enjoyed watching the games together.
Her great passion after her husband and family was horse racing and the wagering attendant thereto. Most of our family vacations were, by crazy coincidence, in cities that contained a racetrack. We learned the names Hialeah, Gulfstream, Saratoga, Arlington Park, Keeneland and Churchill Downs right along with history and social studies. She was always so very happy to be at the races with her beloved husband, John. If the occasional trifecta or daily double might hit, that was just the cherry on top of the sundae for Mom.
While she loved traveling to large cities and foreign countries, dining on gourmet food, she was equally at home cooking ham and green beans and fried fish at the lake, sitting on the pier and taking evening cruises on a pontoon.
She valued her family and friends completely, and if you were fortunate to be among that number, you enjoyed the most wonderful smile, warmth, and laughter there ever was. She saved her biggest smiles though for her joys, her wonderful grandchildren Mary Eileen, Jack and Lucy. She lit up whenever they were near, and they could do no wrong. She was their “Noni”, a wonderful grandmother who filled their lives with love and care.
Eileen will be missed so very much. Our mother was an extraordinary person, and her loss leaves a great void that will be difficult to fill. Fill it we shall, however, because she taught us all the things she loved and knew and she did so with a singular combination of grace, elegance, and kindness that has left a permanent mark on all of us who knew her. Even when the cruel disease of dementia robbed her of her memories, Eileen’s magnificent warmth and spark could not be extinguished.
Eileen is survived by her amazing husband, John C. Christ; son John M. Christ (Victoria); and daughter Annie Christ (Rusty Jones); sister Cookie Hayes, brother Timothy O’Connor, sister Marilyn Brothers (Bob), brother Jerry O’Connor (Sally), brother Danny O’Connor (Janet) and sister Jeanne McHugh and sister-in-law Sue O’Connor and brother-in-law Michael Murphy. She is also survived by grandchildren Mary Eileen (David Pennington) Christ, John Anthony Christ, and Lucy Garcia. Eileen is predeceased by parents Leo and Gene O’Connor, her sisters Maureen O’Connor, Kathleen Murphy, brother Michael O’Connor and brothers-in-law Timothy Hayes and Michael McHugh.
Visitation for Eileen will be held Thursday, June 13, 2024, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Leppert Mortuary – Nora, 740 East 86th St, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240. Mass of Christian Burial will occur Friday, June 14, 2024, at 11:00 AM at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 5692 Central Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana 46220.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Little Sisters of the Poor, the Indianapolis Urban League, Catholic Charities or the Alzheimer’s Association.
Posted online on June 14, 2024
Published in The Indianapolis Star
