Edward Aloysius Harrigan

Martha’s comments on her brother Edward Aloysisus Harrigan Ed: • He had a girl friend who gave him the nickname of “Teddy.” • He took a mission magazine as did Sylvester Kern. Through this magazine they became pen pals. Sylvester came out to the Harrigan farm and on one occasion they picked berries and Sylester spilled his and he started to cry and Edward consoled him. Edward met Sylvester’s sister Mary who eventually became Edward’s wife. • When he went to Lourdes in the 1950’s or 1960’s he sent holy water and a blue rosary to his mother Margaret Risch.

Jack Harrigan wrote: Dad, Ed Harrigan, was the oldest of the children of Anna and John Harrigan. He had one brother, Dan, plus sisters Margaret, Eleanor, and twins Mary and Martha.

Ed Harrigan was the senior lay editor and one of the founding editors of the Catholic Digest, a religious publication that once ran to a million copies, printed in several languages, including Braille. - He made a trip to Rome during the 1950 Holy Year as a special emissary from the Catholic Digest and presented bound volumes of the publication to Pope Pius XII during a private audience. - By some coincidence he just happened to be on the same plane and same tour with June Haver, the movie star, who was seeking a dispensation from the Vatican so she could marry Fred MacMurray. She didn't get the dispensation but went ahead and married Fred anyway. We always kidded dad about "running off with June Haver".

CHILDREN OF ED AND MARY HARRIGAN:

Edward Patrick, the oldest, was always a craftsman and a tinkerer throughout his life. Throughout grade school when he wasn't building model airplanes he was building radio transmitters and receivers. These weren't little $2 airplane kits. They were four-engine B-17 bombers with real gasoline Olsen engines. And the radios weren't those entry-level crystal radios you built with a razor blade, safety pin and a radio crystal. These were actual transmitters and receivers that put you on the air worldwide as a HAM operator. He was licensed with the call letters W0GTM and would sit up nights communicating with people from Queensland, Australia, to St. John's, Newfoundland. He was married to Lil Fleming and was employed as an inspector of aviation electronics for the Federal Aviation Administration when he died.

Margaret (Marge) Harrigan is married to Jerry Hovey and they've raised six boys. Jerry is a retired accountant and Marge is an accomplished seamstress. And world traveler. She recently returned from a tour of Italy (Shroud of Turin, etc) and a year or so earlier made a tour of the Holy Land. Marge graduated from Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. Jerry graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN. He used to be captain of the (Bishop) Cretin High School Football Team.

When Marge's son, Robert and his wife, Sue, were producing ballet shows for a ballet school they ran in Germany, Marge was sewing all their costumes for them.

Dorothy Harrigan (Oliver) is still teaching in a Catholic School at Camp Hill, Pa. She and her husband, Tom, are key people in staging car shows every year at Hershey, Pa, I believe. Tom owns a classic LaSalle.

Dorothy graduated from Derham Hall High School and also has a bachelor of arts degree in music from St. Catherine's College in St. Paul.

Dorothy has a terrific soprano voice and formerly sang for St. Paul Civic Opera in various productions ranging from Aida to Tosca to Naughty Marietta and others.

Ruth Harrigan (Wyman) was a fantastic pianist. All of us Harrigans took piano and some of us took other instruments as well (Pat: flute and piccolo. Ruth: violin and piano. Jack: violin, piano. Etc). But Ruth was the best at piano. She could play tough songs like "Malaguena" by heart like Liberace. Ruth is a Derham Hall High School graduate.

She was also one terrific ice skater, performing with the St. Paul Figure Skating Club.

At one time the St. Paul Figure Skating Club joined with St. Paul Civic Opera for a production of "Rose Marie." So Ruth was out there on the ice and Dorothy was up there singing with St. Paul Civic Opera. It was a beautiful presentation and I had an opportunity for double free tickets.

John J. (Jack) Harrigan graduated from Cretin High School and later from Marquette University College of Journalism. He worked for various newspapers over the years. He was the former Yuma County Bureau Chief, Western Arizona Bureau Chief and Northern Arizona Bureau Chief for the Arizona Republic, the state newspaper. At one time he also taught journalism courses at St. Cloud State College (now a university) at St. Cloud, MN, where he was Assistant Director of Information Services and advisor to the yearbook and darkroom.

Mary Harrigan (Drew) raised four children (Timmy, Terry, Debbie, Mimi) and was formerly married to Ernie Drew who at one time owned the fourth-largest liquor store in Minnesota. Mary recently graduated with an Associate of Arts Degree from a local community college in the St. Paul area. Mary graduated earlier from Our Lady of Peace High School in St. Paul.

Lucille Harrigan (Hansen) is married to Jerry Hansen, a semi-retired air-conditioning contractor. They raised a bunch of good-looking kids who are all doing well . Lucille graduated from Marquette University College of Liberal Arts.

Bernadette (Bernie) Harrigan (Lamb) is married to Ken Lamb, an electrician. Bernie is a good singer and a member of a church choir. They have three kids: Stacy, Bernadette and Kenneth.

Dan Hartnett was one of the nicest guys I ever met. I looked forward to the times when he and his wife, Irene, would visit the Ed Harrigan family when we lived at 1701 Wellesley Avenue in St. Paul. Since dad was the senior lay editor at the Catholic Digest, Dan worked closely with him on publishing projects. I don’t know if Dan worked at the Digest or for some outside publishing company.

But he had a good sense of humor. One evening when he was visiting he discovered that I liked to rise and shine early. He was doubtful that a little nine year old kid back in 1947 would be getting up at 6 a.m. “I’ll bet you a nickel you can’t do it.” I said, “I bet I can.”

He said, “O.K., call me at 6 a.m. tomorrow and the nickel is yours.” I wondered, “Does he really want me to call him that early?” and asked him if he was serious. He said yes. I called him the next morning and won the nickel.

This Dennis The Menace cartoon (see attachment) in today’s (02-12-2016) paper reminded me of my early morning phone call to Dan.

A few years prior to that bet, Dan had been in a sergeant in the Army and had been corresponding with dad. I have been perusing a couple of interesting letters he sent and have enclosed a typewritten version for easier reading and a photocopy of the letterheads and envelopes (see attachment).

Envelope: Postmarked: Aug. 5, 1943

Sgt. D.L. Hartnett

1081st Signal Company

LAAF, Lakeland, Texas

Addressed to:

Mr. Edward Harrigan

c/o The Catholic Digest

41-43 E. 8th Street

St. Paul, Minn

                       Personalized stationery

DANIEL HARTNETT, JR
Lakeland, Texas
Received the August Digest today and want to congratulate you on that lead article. It really was good, Ed, and Irene and I certainly enjoyed it. Be sure and send me a copy of anything you write in the future.

Also, thanks for the picture you took when we were home on furlough. It really was swell and will always be one of our treasures.

Things have been buzzing right along down here and we are nearing the end of our training every day. One of these days I imagine we will be making a little boat trip and if I do Irene will be home let you in on all the details.

How is everything coming at the Digest? By the looks of the August issue it really seems better than ever. How is the circulation coming? Let me in on it. From the looks of several clippings out of the Dispatch which my mother sent me, it looks like the Digest is really getting some local publicity. Glad to hear it.

I suppose you know by now I was made a Sgt. On July 12. I’m making $78 a month now plus the $28 I’m getting so it isn’t bad at all.

How are Mary and the kids? I suppose they’ve all grown quite a bit since we were home. Tell Pat I’ve been stationed at airports all the time and have really seen planety of planes.

We’ll, Ed, I’ll close this one up now. Write if you get a chance. Give my regards to the gang at home and at the office.

                                               Regards, 

Dan.
Envelope:

S/SGT D.L. HARTNETT AIR POST 6 CENTS

1081ST SIGNAL COMPANY DEC 20, 1944

APO 528

C/O POSTMASTER, NYC, NY PASSED: U.S. ARMY CENSOR

Dear Ed: No. Africa Dec 17, 1944

Just a note to let you know I received your Christmas message. It certainly was nice of you to take the time to write me as I know how busy you must be. Guess both of us are pretty bad on this correspondence deal.

Glad to hear that all of the kids are O.K. It sure must be a great feeling to have such a swell family. Sure hope I can follow in your footsteps some day.

From Irene’s letter, it seems you really had a banner year at the Digest this year. I’m surely sorry that I missed it as I used to like those Christmas rushes in spite of all the headaches connected with them. Guess the Digest has really moved into the big time mag field.

I hear from the fellows in the old gang at regular intervals. *Andy and I consider ourselves neighbors, even if we are thousands of miles apart as we’re much closer to each other than we are to the other fellows. I sure hope I’ll be able to run into him sometime.

He told me in a recent letter that *Greg was heading back for the States. It’s a good break for him after being overseas for 33 months. We still consider ourselves rookies overseas and never even think about going home. I’m surprised that the fellows have such high morale but when we consider our lot with fellows up on the front, we don’t have much to complain about.

Wish you’d give my regards to *P.B., *Louie Gales and *Bob Alm. Although you don’t hear from me often, I think about you fellows and remember the swell times we had at the Digest. I’ve always valued your friendship very highly, Ed, and I can honestly say that I’ve met hundreds of fellows in the service (and) there are very few who can compare with you and the other fellows of the early Digest crew. Merry Christmas to you and Mary and the kids.

                                                                                   Best regards,

Dan
*Andy = Andy Stack, fellow Digest employee

• Greg = Greg Ritt, fellow Digest employee
• P.B. = The Rev. Paul Bussard, publisher of The Catholic Digest and one of 3 co-founders of the magazine.
• Louie Gales: The Rev. Louis A. Gales, one of three co-founders of the Digest who left to found the Catechetical Guild, a religious publishing company and radio program to teach kids catechism.
• Bob Alm = fellow Digest employee.

The third co-founder of the Digest was the Rev. Edward Jennings, (AKA "Jiggs") who left to found The Leaflet Missal, a small weekly missalette that help Mass attendees follow the service..

The magazine was the brainchild of Father Gales, who in 1936 enlisted the assistance of Fathers Bussard and Jennings. It is my understanding that the three pooled their savings of about $3,000 to launch the magazine. By the end of World War II it was published worldwide in several languages, plus Braille. It currently boasts a circulation of about 300,000 but at one time sold in the millions. It is very similar to The Readers Digest in that most of the articles are secular but tend to favor Catholic people or events such as, say, the Trapp Family or The Kennedys or a Eucharistic Congress.

Ed Harrigan joined as the only lay editor of the magazine around the late 30s.

Dan Hartnett is the uncle of Josh Hartnett, a Hollywood actor/producer who attended the funeral of his aunt Irene a year or so ago in St. Paul. Here is some bio on him:

Early life[edit]

Hartnett was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,[1] though some sources, he has said, erroneously give San Francisco, California.[2] The son of Wendy Anne (née Kronstedt) and Daniel Thomas Hartnett, he was raised by his father, a building manager, and his stepmother, Molly, an artist.[3] He has two brothers, Jake and Joe.[4] Hartnett was raised Roman Catholic,[5] attending Nativity of Our Lord Catholic School, the same school in St. Paul, Minnesota, that all the Harrigan kids attended.6]

Career[edit]

After finishing high school, a move to New York to attend the Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film at SUNY Purchase did not go as well as Hartnett had hoped for, and a year later at age 19, he found himself in California.[7] Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he caught an improbable break, landing a part in the short-lived but acclaimed drama Cracker, on ABC. Although the series was cancelled after sixteen episodes, Hartnett had made a name for himself. He then began to focus on feature film work. He performed in small plays and on national television commercials before being cast in his first feature film, playing the son of Jamie Lee Curtis' character in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Released on August 5, 1998, it performed well at the box office.

Hartnett developed a film career, having appeared in Hollywood films, including The Faculty, Black Hawk Down, Lucky Number Slevin and Pearl Harbor. He was originally scheduled to play the role of Tino in Deuces Wild, but dropped out to star in Pearl Harbor. In 2002, he starred in O, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello set in an American high school, as Hugo, the film's version of Iago. In the early 2000s, Hartnett was approached several times to play the role of Clark Kent/Superman in the early 2000s for a project originally helmed by Brett Ratner, but always turned it down, not wanting to commit to a predicted ten-year role.[8][9] Hartnett said of his decision, "It just wasn't the kind of movie I wanted to do. I turned down other superhero roles as well."

Hartnett at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Hartnett was chosen as one of Teen People magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21" in 1999, Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars under 25", and one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People", both in 2002. He was also voted Bliss magazine's "3rd Sexiest Male", and in 2003 PETA named him the Sexiest Vegetarian Alive, as chosen by voters.[10]

One of Hartnett's next films was the 2006 drama-mystery The Black Dahlia, in which he played a detective investigating the notorious real-life murder of actress Elizabeth Short. Hartnett had been cast in the role five years before the film was produced, remaining committed to appearing in the movie because he liked the subject matter.[11]

Among his 2007 roles were Resurrecting the Champ, a drama also starring Samuel L. Jackson, and the graphic novel-based 30 Days of Night, in which he played a small-town sheriff. Hartnett described the second film as "supernatural, but kind of a western". He was going to play trumpet player, Chet Baker, in the film The Prince of Cool, but did not agree with the producer's ideas and left the project.[12]

In 2008, Hartnett played Charlie Babbit alongside Adam Godley in the theatre adaptation of Barry Morrow's Academy Award-winning Rain Man at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End.[13] He starred in the new campaign of the Emporio Armani fragrance, "Diamonds for Men", being featured in both print and TV ads for the fragrance, thus becoming the first male celebrity to represent Giorgio Armani Beauty.[14]

He has been featured on many magazine covers, such as Cosmogirl, Details, Entertainment Weekly, Girlfriend, Seventeen, Vanity Fair, GQ and Vman, in addition to being in other magazines like Vogue, ELLE, People, Glamour, Intouch and InStyle.[15][16]

In 2009, Hartnett produced the video clip for the rapper Kid Cudi's song Pursuit of Happiness.[17]

In 2013, Hartnett was a guest of honor on Off Plus Camera.[18]

In 2014, he was cast in the part of Ethan Chandler in the gothic horror series Penny Dreadful,[19] shot in locations around Dublin and Ireland.[20]

Regarding fame, Hartnett has said, "I know what it's like to be in that whole world. I was up there for a couple of years, and it was uncomfortable. I think trying to stay at the top is a shortcut to unhappiness." Hartnett also took a break from acting, saying "I spent a bit of time really thinking about whether this was the right thing for me."[21]

Activism[edit]

Hartnett has been involved in various causes. In 2007, he took time out from filming to support the green lifestyle campaign of Global Cool.[12]

In 2011, Hartnett became one of a handful of celebrities attached to USAID and Ad Council's FWD campaign, an awareness initiative tied to that year's East Africa drought. He joined Uma Thurman, Chanel Iman and Geena Davis in TV and internet ads to "forward the facts" about the crisis.[22]

In 2012, Hartnett also joined Barack Obama in his campaign in Minnesota, appearing at such events as the Minnesota Greater Together Youth Summit before formally endorsing the President on the official campaign YouTube channel.[23] He along with Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak also appeared at the University of Minnesota's McNamara Alumni Center for an Obama Q&A in April.[24]

CHILDREN OF ED AND MARY HARRIGAN:

Edward Patrick, the oldest, was always a craftsman and a tinkerer throughout his life. Throughout grade school when he wasn't building model airplanes he was building radio transmitters and receivers. These weren't little $2 airplane kits. They were four-engine B-17 bombers with real gasoline Olsen engines. And the radios weren't those entry-level crystal radios you built with a razor blade, safety pin and a radio crystal. These were actual transmitters and receivers that put you on the air worldwide as a HAM operator. He was licensed with the call letters W0GTM and would sit up nights communicating with people from Queensland, Australia, to St. John's, Newfoundland. He was married to Lil Fleming and was employed as an inspector of aviation electronics for the Federal Aviation Administration when he died.

Margaret (Marge) Harrigan is married to Jerry Hovey and they've raised six boys. Jerry is a retired accountant and Marge is an accomplished seamstress. And world traveler. She recently returned from a tour of Italy (Shroud of Turin, etc) and a year or so earlier made a tour of the Holy Land. Marge graduated from Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. Jerry graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN. He used to be captain of the (Bishop) Cretin High School Football Team.

When Marge's son, Robert and his wife, Sue, were producing ballet shows for a ballet school they ran in Germany, Marge was sewing all their costumes for them.

Dorothy Harrigan (Oliver) is still teaching in a Catholic School at Camp Hill, Pa. She and her husband, Tom, are key people in staging car shows every year at Hershey, Pa, I believe. Tom owns a classic LaSalle.

Dorothy graduated from Derham Hall High School and also has a bachelor of arts degree in music from St. Catherine's College in St. Paul.

Dorothy has a terrific soprano voice and formerly sang for St. Paul Civic Opera in various productions ranging from Aida to Tosca to Naughty Marietta and others.

Ruth Harrigan (Wyman) was a fantastic pianist. All of us Harrigans took piano and some of us took other instruments as well (Pat: flute and piccolo. Ruth: violin and piano. Jack: violin, piano. Etc). But Ruth was the best at piano. She could play tough songs like "Malaguena" by heart like Liberace. Ruth is a Derham Hall High School graduate.

She was also one terrific ice skater, performing with the St. Paul Figure Skating Club.

At one time the St. Paul Figure Skating Club joined with St. Paul Civic Opera for a production of "Rose Marie." So Ruth was out there on the ice and Dorothy was up there singing with St. Paul Civic Opera. It was a beautiful presentation and I had an opportunity for double free tickets.

John J. (Jack) Harrigan graduated from Cretin High School and later from Marquette University College of Journalism. He worked for various newspapers over the years. He was the former Yuma County Bureau Chief, Western Arizona Bureau Chief and Northern Arizona Bureau Chief for the Arizona Republic, the state newspaper. At one time he also taught journalism courses at St. Cloud State College (now a university) at St. Cloud, MN, where he was Assistant Director of Information Services and advisor to the yearbook and darkroom.

Mary Harrigan (Drew) raised four children (Timmy, Terry, Debbie, Mimi) and was formerly married to Ernie Drew who at one time owned the fourth-largest liquor store in Minnesota. Mary recently graduated with an Associate of Arts Degree from a local community college in the St. Paul area. Mary graduated earlier from Our Lady of Peace High School in St. Paul.

Lucille Harrigan (Hansen) is married to Jerry Hansen, a semi-retired air-conditioning contractor. They raised a bunch of good-looking kids who are all doing well . Lucille graduated from Marquette University College of Liberal Arts.

Bernadette (Bernie) Harrigan (Lamb) is married to Ken Lamb, an electrician. Bernie is a good singer and a member of a church choir. They have three kids: Stacy, Bernadette and Kenneth.