Olena Mae Welsh was born on November 4, 1919 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Rev. Charles Wesley Hendrickson and Mrs. Myrtle Olena Scott Hendrickson. Her early years were spent living with her family in parsonages in Pennsylvania, as her father was a United Brethren minister. She grew up with her two older sisters and then pursued higher education with her sister Mary Jane at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, graduating with Mary Jane from the Class of 1941, and majoring in French and English. After graduating from Wheaton, Olena Mae continued at the Columbia Bible College in Columbia, South Carolina, where she earned a master's degree in Christian Education.

Upon completion of her formal training Olena Mae worked briefly with Mrs. Philip D. Armour at the Chicago Child Evangelism Fellowship in Chicago's loop, and then accepted a position at College Church in Wheaton as director of religious education. At the College Church she met her future husband, Pastor Evan Draper Welsh. They fell in love and after a very quiet courtship they were engaged in February and married in May 1946. Evan had two daughters, Joan and Mary Margaret from a previous marriage to Evangeline Mortenson Welsh who had been killed in a traffic accident in 1941. After their marriage Evan and Olena Mae moved with his daughters to Detroit where Evan became the minister of Ward Memorial Presbyterian Church.

In 1955 the couple returned to Wheaton where Evan became chaplain, first to the students and then to the alumni of Wheaton College. The Welshes hosted dozens of Wheaton College Open Houses in their home and provided spiritual counsel for many people from a broad range of ages and interests. Many Wheaton couples met at the Welshes' weekly open houses and Olena Mae took special delight in the couples they introduced and that Evan later married. Shortly after Evan's death in 1981 Olena Mae was encouraged by the late Dr. Kenneth Hansen to accept a new position at the College Church to support the disabled and their families, a ministry which is thriving today. She also taught Bible Study Groups, including the long-lasting one which met at Denny's Restaurant, and which is today called "the Olena Mae group." She retired from her full time work in 1997 and continued to pour her love and attention and her special ministry of prayer into many lives, including daily prayer for Wheaton alumni and College church friends and missionaries around the globe. In 2000 the Wheaton College Alumni Association bestowed on Olena Mae its first "Lifetime Friendship Award" for her lifetime of friendship to thousands of Wheaton alumni and their families.

Olena Mae and her sister Lois were charter residents of Windsor Park Manor in Carol Stream, Illinois, living there since 1986. After Lois's death in May 2003 Olena Mae's health declined rapidly. Olena Mae died on Thursday afternoon, November 17, 2005 in the presence of her family. The music of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" was playing in the room as she took her last breath.

Olena Mae is survived by a step-daughter, Margaret (Hayes) Barclay; numerous step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren; a sister, Mary Jane (the late Steven) Barabas; and a niece and nephew, Kathy and Dan Barabas. She was preceded in death by a step-daughter, Joan Patterson and a sister Lois Hendrickson.