Paige was born in Alabama, raised in Ohio until she was ten, and then she moved to Germany where her father was an editor for the Stars and Stripes. She returned to the U.S. for college and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology (summa cum laude) from Saint Louis University and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies from Aquinas Institute of Theology also in St. Louis. Paige served for 19 years as director of liturgy and music at St. Francis Xavier (College) Church and eight years as the Pastoral Associate at St. Francis Borgia Church in Washington, Missouri. She left full time ministry in 2004 and since then has been working as a freelance writer and music director.
Paige and her husband, Pat, live on a small farm near Union, Missouri with their three grandchildren for whom they serve as guardians: Sakura (8), Dominic (5) and Matthew (3). (See the current GranDiary (left) for her blog of life with the grands.) There they keep a bountiful garden, milk their goats, and gather eggs from their chickens. Their three sons, Dan, Phil and Nate, live nearby, although Dan, with his wife, Maureen, are traveling. Paige is also blest with two loving, accomplished sibs: her brother – author, educator and artist, Anthony Dallmann-Jones (Tony); and her sister – animal lover and rescuer, Lisa Connolly. Paige directs the 50-voice St. Francis Borgia Parish Choir (Washington, Missouri), and also the Combined Christian Choir of Franklin County, Missouri. She has been honored as Church Woman of the Year (2002) by the Washington Kiwanis Club and presented with Church Women United's Valiant Woman Award in 2008. As a liturgist, Paige has written and presided at prayer services that have included David M. Bailey, Maya Angelou, Elie Wiesel, Rachel Naomi Remen, Robert Wicks, Parker Palmer, Tennessee Williams, and the Dalai Lama.
Pat and Paige have sponsored children through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging and in 2008 Paige spent a month in India and visited the CFCA project in Hyderabad. She has also traveled in Guatemala, and, with Pat, led their choir on tours of Ireland and Italy, as well as to St. Louis, Chicago and Washington, DC. With the new responsibility of children, she now stays close to home, volunteering as a reader at St. Francis Borgia Grade School where the Grands are enrolled, keeping up with friends and family, singing and writing. It's a good life.
Paige Byrne Shortal
