Edna V. Ullmann, retired secretary
Edna V. Ullmann, a retired secretary and a longtime Timonium resident, died Monday of undetermined causes at Brightview Towson, an assistedliving facility. She was 96.
Edna Virginia Kelly was the daughter of William Kelly, a newspaper reporter, and Adele Kelly, a homemaker.
She was born in Bayonne, N.J., the fifth of six children, and was raised in Union City, N.J.
After graduating from high school in 1940, she worked as a bookkeeper to help support her mother and younger sister.
Mrs. Ullmann was an active communicant of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Union City and performed in “Veronica’s Veil,” a passion play that was written by the Rev. Bernardine Dusch in 1910.
In 1953, she married Francis J. “Frank” Ullmann, a traffic analyst with Amoco Oil Co. He was transferred to Baltimore in 1966, and the couple and their six children settled in Timonium.
When the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Roman Catholic Church opened in 1968, Mrs. Ullmann became its first secre- tary. She later worked for Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Maryland and several retailers before retiring in the mid-1970s.
After her husband’s death in 1983, Mrs. Ullmann joined various retirees’ groups and learned to sketch and paint. She enjoyed traveling and loved caring for her grandchildren. Later in life, Mrs. Ullmann moved to a rowhouse near Riverside Park in South Baltimore, where she lived until she was 95.
She remained a communicant of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Church, 20 E. Ridgely Road, Timonium, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. today.
She is survived by five sons, Raymond Ullmann and Kevin Ullmann, both of Baltimore, Frank Ullmann of York, Pa., Donald Ullmann of Conway, S.C., and William Ullmann of Virginia Beach, Va.; a daughter, Debbie Ullmann of Chincoteague, Va.; a sister, Anna Kelly of Laguna Woods, Calif.; 11 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. contracted malaria, which led to health problems for years. He and his brother went to live with their maternal grandmother, and she introduced him to the world of literature: Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and others.
“I think reading saved my life,” Mr. Pitol said in a 2002 interview with Radio y Television Espanola. “I am sure that if I had not read Verne ... I would have died very quickly or I would have stayed ill forever.”
Known for his slow and deep speech and for dressing in elegant suits, Mr. Pitol radiated vivacity and humor in his writing. He was also a diplomat, serving as cultural counselor in Mexican embassies in Warsaw, Budapest and Moscow as well as ambassador to Czechoslovakia and cultural attache in Paris.