In Memoriam

We Remember

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Sister Barbara Hengesbach, OP (Agnes William)

(1927-2020)

Beginning in the mid-1920s, the south side of Lansing, Michigan, was home to the Hengesbach family: Harold and Irma (Mikulaschek) and, as the years went on, four daughters: Barbara, Anita, Elaine, and Shirley.

Harold was born in the small town of Westphalia, Michigan, a largely German-Catholic community twenty-five miles northwest of Lansing. His family moved to Lansing when he was sixteen, and it was there, at a party, that he met the daughter of Ludwig and Fanny Mikulaschek.

The Mikulascheks and their daughter were immigrants from Sarajevo, which at that time was part of Austria-Hungary. Ludwig served in the Army there, and when his enlistment was complete he could either re-enlist or return to Vienna to manage the family sugar-beet business. As Barbara told the story in her autobiography:

Neither choice was too appealing and stories of “streets paved with gold” in the land across the Atlantic sounded more interesting. Ludwig and Fanny Mikulaschek and their only child came to America. Mother was four years old at the time. The young family lived in New York for awhile and then made the move to Lansing, Michigan. Grandpa got a job at Oldsmobile. He never did find the “gold,” but he was happy earning an honest living for his young wife and beautiful daughter.

INAI Studio's 40th Anniversary Celebration, with Sisters Rita Schiltz and Barbara Chenicek at Weber Center Auditorium, June 2, 2013

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Sister Winifred C. M. Lynch, OP (Simon Peter)

(1923-2020)

Soon after Winifred Clare Mary Lynch came into this world at Dr. Mill’s Private Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey, she already had a story to tell for the rest of her life: a grieving woman who had lost her own child came into the hospital nursery and took her.

“According to my mother, [the woman] picked out the most beautiful child!” Sister Winnie, as she was long known, said in her autobiography. “After a frantic search, the nurses found me and returned me to my dear mother.”

Winifred Lynch was born May 25, 1923, to Patrick and Agnes (Regan) Lynch, both of them Irish immigrants. Patrick was born in County Meath, while Agnes came from County Mayo. The couple immigrated to America in the early part of the 20th century and settled near siblings in Morristown. Four children came into the family: Elizabeth (known as Tootsie), Catherine, Winifred, and Peter. Winnie later learned that her mother once spoke of another child born between Catherine and Winnie, but the particulars remained a mystery.

Before Winnie started school, the Lynches moved to Chappaqua, New York, where Patrick worked for a wealthy family. Her early education was at St. Mary School, but when she was in sixth grade, she and Peter transferred to Horace Greeley School in Chappaqua. While she struggled with her experience at St. Mary, she enjoyed her time at Horace Greeley and excelled in field hockey.

“I was told that I was always a lively active child,” she said in her autobiography. But that liveliness made her mishap-prone; once while pretending to be a clown, she put pussy willows into both ears and a piece ended up stuck deep inside one ear. She also put a pitchfork through her foot and, when she was ten years old, fell with a ruler in her mouth and “removed my own tonsils.”