Catherine Mary Linehan McConnell
1921-2008
Catherine Mary McConnell was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 19, 1921. She and her younger sister, Rosemary, born in 1928, were raised by their parents, John and Catherine Linehan. Catherine attended St. Felicitas Grade School. Her high school years were spent at St. Mary Academy in Monroe, Michigan and Aquinas Dominican High School in Chicago.
In February of 1939, Catherine entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation, but her parents wanted her at home and within two weeks came and picked her up. By June of 1940, Catherine had met and married Niven McConnell. They were married for 57 years when he died. They had five children, three girls and two boys.
After service in World War II, Niven returned to his wife and family and worked as the Chief Engineer of St. Mary’s of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois. During those years Catherine and Niven were the seminarians’ “mom and pop”.
In 1962, they moved to California, where Catherine earned a business and real estate certificate. She ran the McConnell Realty offices in Upland and Ontario, California for 30 years. Catherine also began studies in 1980 at the Bishop Straling Leadership Institute, graduating in 1982. She felt privileged to continue study with the Deacon candidates until 1984, when she was commissioned as a pastoral minister. which led her to ongoing ministry in Eucharistic prayer services; ministry to the sick, shut-ins and the elderly; and sacramental preparation for 2nd and 4th graders.
Catherine is attributed with starting the Parish Life Committee at her parish, St. George in Ontario, and a blood bank. She also contributed time and talent as a member of the St. George Development Committee, which transacted for real estate on which to build the parish’s new hall and school. Bishop Philip Straling sent her to a workshop to study economic social justice, which she then put to use by facilitating classes throughout the diocese.
During all of this time, Catherine guided her children as they studied and matured into responsible and loving adults. Starting in 1995, she endured a number of losses. In February of that year, her son Niven, Jr. died and in November of 1997 her husband, Niven passed away. Her daughter, Catherine Marshal, died of cancer in April 2000.
The following October, Catherine McConnell was accepted as an Adrian Dominican Associate at the Dominican West Chapter Assembly.The joy, thankfulness and love that Catherine expressed for her relationship with the Adrian Dominican Sisters are found in several letters to Sister Mary Ellen Youngblood, OP, the Director of the Associate Program at the time. The letters are very moving and give the reader a sense of the woman of faith that Catherine has been throughout her life.
In 2005, Catherine fell and broke a hip, but her injury was misdiagnosed as arthritis. She served as a Communion minister in a nursing home and took care of a friend who was ill and wished to remain in her home rather than be placed in a nursing facility. At the same time, Catherine participated in a Cursillo retreat and subsequently joined the local group along with its women’s group. She sold her home and moved with her daughter in Chino Hills.
In 2006, Catherine fell and broke her other hip. Again, the injury was misdiagnosed, leaving her in a great deal of pain and a wheel chair. Finally a physical therapist in the convalescent home where she was staying noticed the breaks. While in that convalescent home, Catherine continued to minister to those around her, as a Communion minister to the other residents and as a source of spiritual sustenance and hope to the nursing staff. Often, when her children asked her if she needed anything, she would ask instead for something for another resident. She was always thinking of others.
Catherine continued to emphasize and do what she could for the initiatives from the Adrian Congregation and her Chapter. She spoke of these initiatives to those around her. They were definitely part of her life and her witness to her own family as well as others.
Following the discovery of her broken hips, Catherine had back-to-back hip replacement surgeries, which resulted in set-backs. In her last days she continued to speak of social justice issues and the Adrian Dominican initiatives as issues that her children also care about. Catherine’s health declined and she died on December 30, 2008.
Catherine lived life to the fullest. As she lived so much of her life as a Communion minister and in constant service to others, it is not difficult to imagine that she is in full communion with her Maker and full of joy.