Sister June Marie Howard
1926-2008

In an interview with Sister Joanne (Jodie) Screes,  Sister June Howard told an interesting story about the wedding of her parents, John and Kathleen (Mathis) Howard.

On November 26, 1924, her parents attended morning Mass at Holy Cross Church in Chicago and then exchanged their marriage vows at night during a special social celebration arranged by John’s father, Timothy J. Howard, who was Captain of the Chicago Police Department. This November 26 was not only her parents’ wedding day, it was Thanksgiving Day and the bride’s birthday!

Timothy Howard, Sister June’s paternal grandfather, left Ireland for America around 1900. There he met and married Elizabeth Baldwin. After their marriage they lived in a two-flat building above relatives and were served by their maid Mattie, a woman whom all of the family loved dearly. Years later, when Mattie was very old, Sister June’s parents took her into their home and cared for her until her death.

John Howard did not follow his father into the police department. Although he left school after sixth grade, he became a successful Cook County engineer-surveyor. Following the wedding described above, he and his wife parented four daughters, June, Jeanne, Kathleen, and Laurayne. June came into the family on June 28, 1926. The Howards lived through the Great Depression and managed well. Sister Jodie Screes wrote of John Howard, “He found the time and the resources to feed the poor, bury the dead, and visit the imprisoned.” It is easy to understand why June and her sisters always felt loved and protected.

During her childhood, June was frequently sick. At one time, shortly before she made her First Communion, she suffered from severe pneumonia. Two ribs were removed to relieve her lungs and tubes were inserted which had to be changed at certain times.

June spent her elementary years at Holy Cross School in Chicago with the BVM Sisters. She loved the sisters, and for high school she insisted on attending Immaculate Conception Boarding School in Davenport, Iowa, also operated by the BVM Sisters, but left after a year, “the loneliest year of her life.” She returned to Chicago and finished her secondary years at Aquinas High School with the Adrian Dominican Sisters. In her St. Catherine letter she wrote:

I cherish the memories of my school days there, witnessing the love and example of the sisters who taught there. I loved school, although I was no great scholar. I lived life to the fullest, wore strapless gowns, and had a great time.

Although she had been dating a young man and thinking of marriage, on June 25, 1944, three days before her eighteenth birthday, she was on the train for Adrian, where she entered the postulate. About her time in the postulate and novitiate, Sister June wrote, “Adrian was beautiful at that time of the year. The grounds were gorgeous and the nuns were all so kind and happy. Sister Brigetta [McDonough] was lovely and kind, patient with all of us.”

June received the habit and her religious name, Sister Sean Kathleen, taken to honor her father and mother, on January 3, 1945, and professed her first vows on January 5, 1946.

The first ten years of her teaching ministry were in Michigan. Immediately after profession, she was in a car bound for Detroit, where she taught primary children at Precious Blood School until January 1950. She told Sister Jodie that she loved her superior, Sister Bernardine Ryan, and all of the twenty-four sisters who were missioned there. She was happy when her sister Kathleen entered the Congregation in 1948, but sad when she left three years later.

In January 1950 she was brought back to Adrian to finish her bachelor’s degree at Siena Heights College (now University) that she received in August 1950 with a major in history and minors in English and Spanish. Her next assignment sent her to Our Lady Gate of Heaven School in Detroit, again as a primary teacher, for two years. In 1952 she was brought back to Adrian where she taught middle grade and junior high students at St. Joseph Academy for three years. “Every inch of the Academy was dear to me, and when I left there, I left my heart as well.” She spent the summers at Mount St. Mary in St. Charles, Illinois, studying theology, and received a certificate in 1953. During the 1955-56 school year, she taught eighth grade at Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington.

Her twenty-nine-year ministry in Illinois began with her appointment as principal and superior at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Chicago, at the age of thirty. She wrote, “I found six years of love, attention, and support.” Sister Loretta Glanz sent a message that was read at the wake. She wrote in part:

I was sent from St. Stephen, Saginaw, Michigan, to Star of the Sea. I arrived by train and was met by the sisters, and thus began three beautiful and exciting years with the community of seventeen sisters who were there at the time. There were a lot of very young sisters there at that time, and she made sure that we always had fun things to do. . . . What I will remember most about her is how community minded she always was, and how she looked out for the good of each sister. During my three years there, we worked very hard but had a lot of fun together.

At the end of her successful term, Sister June spent two years at Ascension in Harvey on the middle and junior high level, and five years at St. Rita in Chicago with eighth grade students. She had been studying during the summers, and in August 1968 received a master’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago with a major in administration and minor in guidance.

Again she taught eighth grade students for a year at St. Albert the Great in Oak Lawn. In 1970 she spent a year as principal at Our Lady Gate of Heaven in Chicago; but, at the request of a priest friend at St. Michael Religious Education Center in Orland Park, left to become religious education coordinator there for four years. She then studied for a year at Loyola University in Chicago and received a second master’s degree, this time with a major in pastoral ministry.

In 1976 she served the Joliet Diocesan Religious Education Office as Coordinator of Adult Religious Studies, and wrote, “I am not task-oriented, and it was there that I realized that I should go back to parish life.” She moved to St. Isaac Joques, Hinsdale, in 1979 for two years. Again as a result of summer study, she earned a certificate as a hospital chaplain at Pine Crest Psychological Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and then spent four years at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago as chaplain.

Beginning with September 1985, she studied for three months at the Dominican Consultation Center in Detroit, then spent nine months as occupational therapy assistant at Maria Health Care Center. In November 1986 she moved to the Motherhouse and served as a driver for almost a year, then ministered as Activities Director for the senior sisters for almost three years. In 1990 she began three years in pastoral care at Villa Elizabeth in Grand Rapids, Michigan, spent a year resting, then again served in pastoral ministry to the students at West Catholic High School in Grand Rapids.

In November 1995 she returned to Adrian and moved into the Dominican Life Center/Regina Residence, where she began and managed a gift shop. In later years illness assailed her, and in February 2005 she found it necessary to become a resident in the Maria Building. She remained there until her death on December 12, 2008, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at the age of eighty-two.

Sister June’s wake-remembrance service was held on December 15 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter opened the service and welcomed those who had come to bid farewell to Sister June: her sisters Kathleen Flanagan and Laurayne Dunham; her nieces June Anderson, Carol Meisenbach, Marie Graul and her husband Lee; her nephews Patrick Dunham, John and T. J. Flanagan; and her many Dominican friends. Sister Joan summarized Sister June’s life and ministry, and spoke of her physical problems: fibromyalgia and serious vision loss. Surgery was performed on her cornea, but it failed. Again surgery was performed, and this time succeeded. Her vision improved, “and she was thrilled.”

As we all do, Sister June had her ups and downs. Loss of independence was difficult for her. She depended on the nurses and nursing assistants for everything. For one who had always been in charge, it was a difficult pill to swallow. Over the years, she mellowed and realized that God was in charge.

Sister Jodie Screes extended sympathy to the many family members who were present, and praised them for their visits, messages, and phone calls to Sister June.

In these last months I have been deeply moved by her posture of surrender. At first I thought it was new medication. But, no, it was her embracing, not resisting, and saying to her God, “This is fine. Hallowed be Your Name. Your Will be done.” She prayed in the quiet of the day, in the quiet of the night.

Sister Mary Jones sent an email message that was read. She wrote in part:

Sister June and I became friends after I cantored for the “O Antiphons,” and it was one of those times when I wasn’t at my best. . . . She was very kind, and told me how much she appreciated my singing. . . . Whenever I got back into town we would find time for a few minutes together. She would hear my voice at the door and exclaim, “Ah, it is my favorite singing novice!” And she would always have a story to share. She loved being an Adrian Dominican Sister, and it is that joy that drew us together.

Sister June’s niece, Carol Meisenbach, also went to the podium. She spoke of the love that her family felt for her aunt, and explained the nicknames that they called her, “Sister Sean” and “Sister Bunny.” She was called “Sister Bunny” because she visited the family at Easter and brought gifts and candy. Mentioned also was the difficulty the family felt, especially Carol’s father, when the sisters went back to their secular names and no longer wore the habit.

Sister June frequently babysat for the Meisenbach children, and they played tricks on her. She also went traveling with them in their Winnebago, “eating, drinking, sleeping, and doing everything together for three weeks—cramped in this oversized box.”

Our family was so blessed to have Sister Bunny in our lives. She was a strong spiritual presence through the good and the bad, the boring and the mundane. I’ll always have fine memories of her.

A second tragedy occurred for Sister June’s family. Carol Meisenbach collapsed and died at the airport on December 17, as she was returning home from her aunt’s funeral.

Sister June’s sister, Katie Flanagan, third in age of the Howard sisters, said:

My dear sister, June Howard, was the oldest of four girls born to wonderful, prayerful parents. As the third sister, I was the useless third wheel, which young June reminded me of often, being the BIG sister.

She went on to speak of Sister June’s session with double pneumonia, and described the tricks that the two older sisters would play on “the useless third wheel.”

As we grew up, after saying our night prayers, we’d be tucked into bed. June would get out of bed, get back down on her knees, and say that she didn’t concentrate enough on her night prayers. Then she’d say them all over again. Our Lord had his eyes on her!

And the Flanagans are grateful to you all. God bless you and all the dear sisters and workers for caring for Sister June in her trying, difficult time. . . . Also we thank all the wonderful sisters June loved and lived with, many of whom she is now joining in heaven.

Sister Winifred (Winnie) Lynch also shared.

I have a word to describe Sister June—“mighty!” She had a mighty heart. It included her family, her congregation, and all her friends. She had a mighty voice. She boomed all over the place. She had a mighty love. She loved her job with the senior sisters, and loved to take them on trips. If you went with her, she had this mighty faith in the prayer we said while we were going.

Sister June’s funeral took place on December 16. Father Martin Iott, OP, of the Ashram Community on the Motherhouse campus, was the presider and homilist. Father spoke of the trust, hope and confidence that Sister June had in God. “The light of God shone in her darkness.” In spite of her sight problems, she kept her eyes focused on Jesus Christ, the Light of God.

Even with failing eyesight, Sister June began her day by praying the “Morning Offering.” Before her sight problems she had written, “I thank the Lord as He has blessed my life and will continue to bless me into eternity to celebrate with Him forever.” As Katie said, “Our Lord had His eyes on her!”