Friends, it is with deep sadness that we share the news that long-time friend and supporter of the Missionary Sisters of Service (MSS), and our mission entity—formerly the John Wallis Foundation and later Highways and Byways—Mary Wagner, has died, in Toowoomba, Queensland. Our thoughts and prayers are with husband Henry, and all the family. The funeral will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Toowoomba, on Friday 16 May 2025.
Mary has been close to the MSS for a long time, since knowing her loved brother, Fr Pat Doyle, who was a good friend to our sisters in their early days of being in Toowoomba. She later became the patron of our mission entity—the then John Wallis Foundation, which later became Highways and Byways – Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves, Together (HB).
She was a member of the Highways and Byways Toowoomba branch, generously hosted MSS and HB meetings at her home, and was involved in every John Wallis Foundation Memorial lecture in Toowoomba. She was also involved in the book launch of The Silent Book by Sr Bernadette Wallis MSS (pictured right), a story of the disappearing Australian Irish Sign language told through the experience of Bernadette’s own deaf family.
Bernadette has penned some reflections on Mary:
“How strange it was that after Mary had been patron for some years that we discovered she was on my family tree, the same family tree of Fr John Wallis, our Founder, through Mary’s husband Henry Wagner. What an amazing discovery! Henry and Mary then became very good friends. I loved to visit them—they were always so genuinely interested in what was happening in my life, in the life of the MSS and the mission. They were good listeners.
Mary was a practical woman of faith and service, a woman with courage and strength as a leader in the wider community, approaching her leadership in a feminine way, a woman who loved each member of her family and spoke so beautifully of each one, always encouragingly. She was a vibrant, creative woman who loved colour and expressed her goodness and kindness in a myriad of ways!
We will always be so grateful for her kindness and generosity toward our community of women.”
In 2018, the then Executive Officer of the John Wallis Foundation, Liz McAloon, wrote a letter of support for Mary Wagner, when she had been nominated for an Order of Australia. The following is an edited version of that letter:
“It is a pleasure to write to you regarding the support and advocacy Mary Wagner of Toowoomba has offered the MSS over many years, and the John Wallis Foundation in recent years.
In the early 1980s the Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba asked one of the MSS, Sr Imelda McMahon, to set up a Catholic Family Bookshop in the central business district of Toowoomba. The Sisters who had arrived in Toowoomba for remote missionary work across Western Queensland had no experience in establishing a business of any kind. Mary Wagner took on the role of guiding and mentoring Imelda as she went about establishing and running the bookshop. Mary introduced Imelda to local businesspeople and networks and provided more than 35 years of friendship and support to Imelda as Imelda grew and successfully operated the business during that time.
Mary’s support of the MSS is well known in Toowoomba. In 2012, Mary joined the Toowoomba Branch of the John Wallis Foundation, which was established by the MSS in 2010 to carry their vision and mission into the future. For every event that the MSS or the John Wallis Foundation have held, Mary has provided enormous support to help achieve the aims of the event—whether it be through her networks, her wide community of friends, offering venues, hosting people from other states in her own home, and taking formal roles.
In 2014 Mary agreed to undertake the role of Patron of the John Wallis Foundation. Since then, Mary has promoted the work of the Foundation broadly across the Toowoomba community and beyond. She has taken on a presenting role at two John Wallis Memorial Lectures in 2015 and 2017, hosting Geraldine Doogue and Fr Frank Brennan SJ. At both events Mary generously provided food and refreshments for the guests. Mary also undertook to launch The Silent Book by Sr Bernadette Wallis MSS, and went above and beyond in helping to promote the book and expand its reach.”
Mary has a wonderful generosity of spirit, which is accompanied by a humble and deeply respectful approach to all she encounters.”
From all of the MSS, and our extended community, we give thanks for Mary’s life and for her enduring connection to the MSS and our mission.
The top photo shows our former MSS staff member, Amanda Freeman, with Mary Wagner in Melbourne, Victoria.