Anna Christine Mulkey

Anna Christine Mulkey, 28, went missing on Thursday, July 28th, and was found drowned Sunday, August 7, 2011. Anna was born April 30, 1983, in Brainerd, MN, to William and Kay (Lower) Mulkey. Anna lived in rural Pillager, Frazee, rural Frazee, and Detroit Lakes, MN, before moving to Fountain City, WI, at age 11. After turning 14, she moved to Winona. She was home schooled beginning at age 6. She attended CFC during 5th grade and then returned to home school, graduating in 2003, with T.E.A.C.H. Accrediting Agency. Anna loved her brothers, sisters, cousins and friends and kept them busy with her creativity; playing games like store, bank, traveling, acting out stories like Laura Ingals Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series, and generally not needing TV. She kept busy coloring, drawing, making art projects, such as a wooden press to dry flowers and sewing projects. In her teen years she was on our church worship dance team and went to Karitos Conference in Chicago with her team two summers in a row. It was there that her earlier love for Native American people was fueled further when she first saw a Christian Native American dance team and became involved with Wiconi International (www.wiconi.com). She has been to three of their annual summer family camps in Turner, OR, making many friends. Anna volunteered at three of the early annual Dakota Homecomings here in Winona. She worked at Midtown Foods and then Wal-Mart before leaving for First Nations Bible College in January of 2007, returning to Winona mid February, 2008. While in CA, Anna had many memorable learning experiences, including one mission trip to a Navajo Reservation in the N.E. corner of Arizona, and a Navajo Fair in the N.W. corner of New Mexico. Since returning from CA, Anna battled with mental illness, but also accomplished a number of things and continued to care deeply about other individuals and was involved with Celebrate Recovery at Pleasant Valley Church in Winona. She loved children and worked at Central Lutheran Day Care, sang in the church choir at Grace Presbyterian Church, went to SE Tech for one semester of massage therapy, worked at Benchmark for awhile, completed the Culinary Cuisine course at SE Tech last fall and volunteered at Grace Place, baking a delicious turkey for their Thanksgiving potluck last Nov., and was in the angel choir in the Live Nativity at The Edge Church, last Dec. She was proud of her sister and cousin in the Twin Cities, who both graduated from high school this June. Thanks to her foster family here in Winona, we have many new and special memories of Anna Christine since early May of this year. Goodbye Morning Dove...we know you are dancing in Heaven with Jesus now and we will see you again with Him when our numbered days are over.Survivors include her parents, Bill and Kay of Winona; maternal grandmother, Thelma Lower of St. Could, MN; siblings, Joseph (Gretchen) Mulkey of Winona, MN, Rebekah Mulkey of Tulsa, OK, Janelle, Nathan and Bethany Mulkey all of Winona, MN; three nieces; uncle, Kevin (Barb) Lower of St. Cloud, MN, Peter (Julie) Preus of Maple Grove, MN, Chris (Karen) Mulkey of Venice, CA, and great uncle, Darrell (Dorothy) Lower of Omaha, NE; aunts, Dianne Brennan and her daughter Megan Mulkey both of Mpls., MN, Jaunita (Shara) Lew of San Diego, CA, Mary (Marty) Grimes of Woodland Hills, CA, and great aunts, Lorraine Johnson of Joplin, MO, and Jean Evans of Crete, NE; and many cousins. She was preceded in death by her paternal grandparents and maternal grandfather. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, August 20th, at 2:30pm at Living Light Church in Winona, MN, with Pastor Sonny Misar officiating. Visitation will be from 1:00pm until the time of service at the church on Saturday. Burial will be in Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Winona, MN. Memorials may be directed to headstone expenses, Wiconi International, or NAMI of Winona. Please share a memory of Anna with her family, sign her online guestbook or view her video tribute when it becomes available online at: www.hofffuneral.com
Tribute video can be found at: videos.lifetributes.com/240093