Sister Julia McCarthy
1921-2009

Sister Julia McCarthy’s wake-remembrance service was held on August 23, the second anniversary of the death of Sister Mary DeVault, her younger sister. Sister Julia never fully recovered from the grief of Sister Mary’s death.

Julia was born in Canton, Ohio, on April 19, 1921. She was the daughter and second child of Julia (Franklin) and Joseph McCarthy. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Detroit, where the family grew to six children: Joseph, Julia, Gervaise, John, Mary, and James. Sister Julia wrote that her mother was a happy person, who often played the piano for her children and who attended the 6:45am Mass each morning. Their father was a quiet, strong man, who knelt beside his chair each morning to pray.

The McCarthy family was not spared when the Great Depression hit. Joseph McCarthy was a salesman, and he lost his job. He, however, found another job at Hudson’s Department Store that he held for the balance of his working life. He often said, “A good salesman can always find a job.” Sister Julia wrote:

We were a very close family, and I helped with the care of the younger children. To this day I hate oatmeal! I fed it to the younger children, and saw enough oatmeal to do me for the rest of my life.

The McCarthy children all attended St. Theresa School. In first grade Julia contracted a severe case of pneumonia. She was anointed and allowed to receive her First Holy Communion. When she recovered she had to repeat first grade. Since she was not strong enough to walk the distance to St. Theresa School, she attended Patingale School, a public school that was closer, for the first three grades. She then returned to St. Theresa where she finished the elementary grades and served as president of her eighth grade class. She began her high school years also at St. Theresa, became involved in sports, and was elected president of her sophomore class.

At the wake, Sister Julia’s niece, Annette DeCaussen, told a story about those early days.

My Uncle John used to tell stories about their childhood. He said that his mother was the dishwasher. Uncle John and Aunt Mary would dry the dishes. Aunt Julia would make up assignments for the next day. One day they asked her, “What do you do?” and she said, “Just never mind. It’s none of your business.” But there was strong camaraderie in the family.

During her junior year, Julia wanted to enter the Adrian Dominicans, but her mother felt that she was too young. Nevertheless, at the end of the first semester of her senior year, on February 2, 1939, a very snowy day, with the permission of her parents, she arrived in Adrian and became a postulant. She wrote that during her postulate she washed dishes in the priests’ dining room, and mentioned the kindness of Sister Florine Podsedly, the postulant mistress.

On August 2, 1939, she received the habit and her religious name, Sister Mary Fides, and entered the novitiate. During the novitiate year she assisted in St. Clement Infirmary, and loved caring for the sick sisters, even though she was frequently late for novitiate prayer. She also wrote of how impressed she was by the high spirits and warmth of Sister Mary Philip Ryan, the novice mistress. “Her love for Our Lord and her zeal for His Kingdom magnetized me. So did her spirit of fun!”

Sister Julia professed her first vows on August 7, 1940. Almost immediately she was on her way to Chicago where she ministered for fourteen years with primary children: ten years at St. Carthage School and four years at St. Laurence School. She wrote that one year she taught second grade with seventy-three children. During several summers she was one of the teachers who demonstrated the teaching of the phonics method.

The year 1952 saw the beginning of the Second Grade Teachers Organization, and Sister Julia was elected president. In her file are several newspaper photos of various activities undertaken by the organization, featuring her name and picture.

During the summers she studied at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, and in 1950 was awarded a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in Spanish and mathematics.

Brought back to Michigan, she taught middle grade students at St. Francis of Assisi in Ann Arbor for two years. Then in 1956 she was shocked to be appointed superior and founder of St. Mary School in Pinckney. Her summers were spent studying at Loyola University in Chicago, and in 1957 she received a master’s degree in English. At the wake, Sister Nora Brady remembered those years. She said:

Pinckney had no public transportation, no buses, no trains, etc. The pastor purchased a lovely four-door Chevy for the sisters. They called it “Sputnik.” The problem was that no one knew how to drive, so Father provided them with a teacher. Pinckney had no traffic, so driving was easy. Sister Julia mastered the situation. I have such fond memories of her taking us for rides to the many surrounding lakes and to the autumn trees’ beauty. We enjoyed a quiet, peaceful, and prayerful life, and thrived on it. She was a beautiful, staunch friend, and I thoroughly enjoyed four years of her peaceful self.

In 1962 Sister Julia began her high school ministry at Benedictine High School in Detroit where she taught English and religion for a year. Transferred to Regina High School in Midland, Michigan, she taught art in addition to English for three years. She then spent four years as an English teacher at Aquinas High School in Southgate, Michigan. At the wake Sister Noreen O’Connell said in part:

We actually lived in a house with six bedrooms but one car. We had a year of togetherness. We drove to and from Aquinas twice a day, six in a car. We also experimented with other things. . . . She was the superior, and she was very supportive of us. She was very kind, generous, and ladylike. We got her ready for experimentation.

My nephew Patrick married their niece Kathleen, and so the O’Connells and McCarthys have been connected for thirty-five years, and we all share the same granddaughter. That’s how we’re related.

Sister Julia spent a year as a student at Aquinas Institute in Dubuque, Iowa, then returned to Michigan for eighteen years as a pastoral minister: four years at St. Basil Parish in East Detroit, seven years at St. Bernard Parish in Alpena, and seven years at St. William in Walled Lake, where she also served as director of the adult religious education program. In 1976 her younger sister Mary, who had been known as Sister Julita, left the Congregation and married Joseph DeVault, who died in February 1977. Although this brought sorrow, Sister Julia honored Mary’s right to her decision.

In 1989 Sister Julia joined her brothers and her sister Mary in Florida. Mary was working as principal at St. James Cathedral Parish in Orlando, and Sister Julia became director of religious education in the parish for two years, then as a teacher of elementary religion in the school for four years. She and Mary then went to Ocala, where both served at Blessed Trinity School, a new high school, Sister Julia as a volunteer tutor. Four years later, Mary became principal at Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach, and Sister Julia tutored at De Porres Literacy Center for four years. During this time Mary suffered a stroke, and the sisters returned to Ocala where they lived for a year while Mary recuperated. In 2000 Mary asked to re-enter the Adrian Dominican Congregation. At the wake, Sister Carleen Maly said:

When Mary was considering responding to an invitation to accept a new ministerial position, whether from Bishop Grady to build a new diocesan high school or become principal at the cathedral school or from the Congregation to be administrator at Rosarian, it was Sister Julia with whom she consulted first. . . . As soon as the decision was made, Sister Julia began investigating ways she could do ministry  in their new location. . . . It was Julia who encouraged Mary to become an Associate, mentored her through the process, and spoke of Mary’s “readiness” at our Chapter Assembly when she was accepted into the Associate Program. And it was Sister Julia who supported Mary through her decision to ask to re-enter the Congregation, and who stood at her bedside in the ICU at Bixby Hospital to witness her final vows.

In 2004, both returned to Adrian, where Sister Julia lived at Regina Residence for a year, Mary again became a member of the Congregation, and both lived in a private residence for seven months. In 2005 Sister Julia became a resident at the Dominican Life Center/Maria, where Sister Mary was also living. Sister Mary’s death in August 2007 was a blow from which Sister Julia never fully recovered. Death came to her two years later, on August 20, 2009.

A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Julia in St. Catherine Chapel on August 23. Sister Jo Gaugier opened the ceremony. She extended sympathy to Sister’s brother John and his wife who were unable to be present, and welcomed those who were present: nieces Anne Marie, Kathy, Annette, and Maria Julie, and Sister Julia’s many Dominican friends. Sister Jo summarized Sister Julia’s life and ministry, and included what her Mission Group said of her on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee in 1999:

She was always a terrific teacher, whether it was first grade, high school, or RCIA. She could teach anyone! Once at Aquinas High [in Southgate] she had an English class of all boys, very poor students, and wild. . . . They loved her . . . Trying to entice them to study Shakespeare, she sent them off to see a play on a day when she couldn’t go with them. Upon returning, she asked what the play was about. They were so excited that they could “teach her” that they went on for an hour, dramatizing parts for her. From that day on she called them her “bare pit” boys—hooked on Shakespeare!

She reminded the assembled group:

Sister Julia just celebrated another Jubilee—seventy years—years in which she walked among us in her kind and gentle way, with a smile and a twinkle in her eye, ever gracious, precise, and generous.

Sister Carleen Maly said in part:

For ten years I had the opportunity to share faith and life with Sister Julia in our Central Florida Mission Group and during my term as Chapter Prioress when she and, of course, her sister Mary DeVault moved to Florida. I came to know Sister Julia as a woman who had deep devotion and respect for her younger sister, her brothers, their spouses and families, and all of us in the Florida Chapter.

Sister Julia was Mary’s solid ground, and ours. She was a wisdom woman, a genteel lady, a “big sister” (despite her small stature), not only to Mary, her other siblings and their family members, but to all of us who had the privilege of learning from her as together we shared faith and life with her.

Kathy O’Connell, Sister Julia’s niece, had come from Florida to bid her aunt farewell. She spoke of Sister Julia’s love of Robert Frost’s poetry, and added:

There was a beautiful view as we were landing in Michigan this morning. Everything was green and pretty. There was flat land to the horizon. It was a contrast to what I left this morning in Florida—golden hills with lots of open space, some patches of trees, the ocean. Both pretty, but contrasts.

Her journey is like those contrasts. It’s still pretty, but different. Our Creator God is with us during this part of our journey, and with us in the journey that we look forward to in faith. So in faith, God bless you all.

Maria DeCaussen, another niece, spoke of her aunts’ visit to her at the beach when she was a lifeguard in Chicago. “I was a new lifeguard. My bosses were strict about watching the water. I didn’t want to get in trouble. I was watching the water and trying to talk to them.”

Annette DeCaussen also spoke of the visits of her aunts as “festive occasions.” “She always took a walk every single day. Two years ago, when Aunt Mary died, Aunt Julia was heartbroken, and it has been hard for her ever since.”

Sister Julia’s funeral liturgy was held on August 24. Father Robert Kelly, OP, was the presider and homilist. Following the beautiful ceremony, Sister Julia was laid to rest in the Congregational cemetery. Sorrow now assuaged, she and Sister Mary are happy together in eternity with their God.