Sister Ruth Kennedy 
1921-2011

Sister Ruth Kennedy grew up with the words of her mother planted in her mind: “You can do anything if you try hard enough.” She was thankful for this philosophy, and it guided her throughout her life. But she knew that she also needed God’s help.

Leo and Agnes (Mahoney) Kennedy were originally from farms near Peosta, Iowa. Both were of Irish ancestry. There was no church in Peosta, so the Mahoneys, Kennedys, and other farmers near Peosta invited the Trappist Monks to come into the area and gave them land on which to build their monastery. As a result, there was a church in Peosta where the Trappists said Mass frequently and often prayed for their founders and their relatives. Both the Mahoneys and Kennedys knew and loved the monks, and visited them often. Sister Ruth wrote, “We’re all reaping blessings from that. I feel that it is a rich heritage that we have enjoyed.”

Leo Kennedy had asthma and found farm life difficult. He and Agnes Mahoney married but soon left Iowa for Detroit, where Leo found work in a factory as an electrician. Sister wrote that in time “both the Kennedy and Mahoney families picked up stakes and came to Detroit.” The automobile industry was beginning, and work was plentiful.

On April 3, 1921, their second child was born to Leo and Agnes Kennedy and baptized Ruth. There were three children in the family: Helen, Ruth, and Donald. Helen died of pneumonia at the age of nine months. Ruth and Donald survived to adulthood. Donald eventually became a teacher of carpentry and mechanical skills, “and was at the same school long enough to have three generations of students in his classes. They always came back to see him.”

Sister Ruth wrote that her father was quiet and reserved and that her mother was petite and tiny. “My dad was the ‘lamb’ and my mother was the ‘lion’.” The Mahoneys were storytellers and party-ers, and loved excitement. The Kennedys were more serious, although they liked to play cards. In her growing-up years, Ruth enjoyed the “rambunctious” parties that the Mahoneys gave, especially the barn dances. Her mother and father were both good dancers, and she loved to watch them. It was at these parties that she, also, learned to dance.

In 1926, at the age of five, Ruth began her education in kindergarten at Noble Public School, which was quite a distance from her home and necessitated a long walk. Her mother went with her a few times, but then Ruth went the distance alone. This was the beginning of her share in her mother’s philosophy. In February 1927 she transferred to St. Brigid School which was nearer her home, and finished eighth grade there in June 1935. Her secondary years were spent at St. Theresa High School. In order to help take care of the tuition, Ruth assisted in first grade and in the school office. These were the Depression years, and the Kennedys struggled with expenses.

On June 23, 1938, Ruth and three of her classmates entered the postulate in Adrian. They received the habit and their religious names on January 3, 1939. Ruth became Sister Agnes Leo. They professed their first vows on January 4, 1940.

Sister Ruth spent the next months at Siena Heights College (now University) beginning work on a bachelor’s degree. In late August 1939 she was on her way to Florida, where she taught primary children for five years at St. Patrick School in Miami Beach. She wrote:

I had the grandchild of the mayor of New York. I had Al Capone’s little boy. We had all the gangsters’ kids in school. They were all good Catholics. We had Fred Snite’s little girls. . . . He went to St. Pat’s himself. After he graduated he contracted polio. He would come to church, not on Sunday, but on a weekday in his iron lung. They would have planks that they would put up on the steps, and they would wheel his iron lung down to the middle of the church. And you’d start breathing with him just he did. . . . He would be there, and he would be very cheerful. . . . [His daughters] were such dainty, beautiful little things. They were just angelic.

During the summers Sister Ruth studied at Barry College (now University) in Miami, and in July 1944 the College awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in Spanish and social studies.

In 1945 she was brought back to the Midwest. For five years she taught primary and junior high students at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Chicago. She then taught for three years on the primary and middle grade level at St. Gabriel in Detroit. She returned to Illinois for a year, and taught junior high at St. James in Maywood. St. Augustin in Des Moines, Iowa, was her next assignment, again with primary children. A year later she was assigned to St. Mary in Saint Clair, Michigan, with junior high level students.

In 1956 she received a shock. She was appointed teaching principal and superior of the sisters at St. Mary in Georgetown, South Carolina. She served in this capacity for three years, then returned to Michigan and taught for a year at St. Luke in Flint. From that time on, all of her ministry was in Michigan. When she left St. Luke, she was assigned to St. Sabina in Dearborn Heights. There she taught primary children for two years. And as a result of summer study at the University of Detroit, she received a master’s degree in education in August 1961.

In 1962 she was assigned to the high school level at St. Mary in Royal Oak, teaching religion, economics, and history for two years. She wrote, “I couldn’t even look at those kids because they were so big. . . . But I found out that big kids are just like little kids. Once they know you love them, you can do anything with them.”

Her next assignment sent her to St. Alphonsus in Dearborn as a teacher of history for four years. She spent the next two years, 1968 to 1970, at Anchor Bay Catholic School in New Baltimore. These years included a period of mourning--her father died in May 1968. After Anchor Bay School closed in 1970 she suffered a period of sickness, and then Sister Paula Connor, the principal at St. Lawrence in Utica, asked her to join the St. Lawrence faculty. That school closed in 1971, but she remained on for a year as parish bookkeeper.

In 1972 she was invited to become administrator of Dominican High Convent in Detroit. This was a fifty-bed house where fourteen sisters were living. The ministry included care of the convent, the convent cars, supervising the cook, and buying the food. In the five years she was there, the building was transformed into apartments. She continued administering the building, and also took on a part-time job as secretary at Holy Name School.

At the invitation of Sister Julie Hyer, who was in charge of the Medical Records Office at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Detroit, in 1977 she began to work in that office, a ministry that she continued for eleven years. The hospital went through many changes in those years. She wrote, “Old St. Joseph’s was a building that was falling apart.” During her time there the Mercy Sisters built a new hospital, still located in the area inhabited by the poor people of Detroit, since the sisters wanted to stay with the poor. Again, during these years, she experienced a period of sadness when her mother died in 1984.

Sister Ruth retired in 1988, and lived in Sterling Heights until 2001. In her years there she became interested in artistic pursuits, wrote beautiful poetry, and tutored at the Dominican Literacy Center in Detroit.

She was ill in 2001, and knew that it was time to return to Adrian, to the Dominican Life Center/Maria. There death came to her quietly on February 26, 2011, a little over a month before her ninetieth birthday.

On February 28 a wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Ruth. Present were several of her family members and friends, including her many Dominican friends. Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, welcomed all present, extended sympathy, and summarized Sister Ruth’s life and ministry. She said in part:

Her contemplative ways continued as she took long walks. Walks in nature and journaling were her companions. She wrote this piece:

“Goodbye, years of 70s, this last one has found me realizing some of the debilitating effects of the aging process: loss of hearing . . . loss of physical control . . . loss of good vision. I sense a loss of sureness in my driving.

“It is easy to see the obvious losses, yet the gains far outweigh these physical elements. Gains: a deeper love of life . . . the growth of joy found in people, birds, and nature . . . a group of “elders” to share my life and time . . . and the blessedness of my space.”

Sister Marie Damian Schoenlein remembered:

I wasn’t missioned with, or had the opportunity to live in community with, Sister Ruth, but more than thirty years ago we were members of St. Catherine Province in Detroit [Sister Marie Damian was the co-Provincial]. . . . I wanted her to be on the Provincial Committee for input. . . . She was a problem solver. I would say to her, “This is the situation. Give me three steps to solve it.” As a financier, she would find the flaws in a budget at a glance.

Our next interaction was some twenty-four years ago when she with Sisters Joan Liberty, Jane Elizabeth Berg, and Fabian Jacyna, were the first tutors at the DLC in Detroit [founded by Sister Marie Damian]. . . . One of her students was Catherine Pace, who worked successfully at a good job until the company closed, then worked at another company for two years when it closed. She’s back at the Literacy Center now updating her computer skills. Her children have followed her example. Her daughter Latonia is getting her master’s degree at Wayne State University.

Thomas Ewald wrote an article about the Detroit Literacy Center, which appeared in the Michigan Catholic. He wrote a little bit about each sister involved. About Sister Ruth he wrote:

Sister Ruth Kennedy, OP, admits, “It’s that old schoolmarm feeling” that drew her back to the classroom setting she’d been familiar with for thirty-five years. She left teaching to take up a management and bookkeeping career, both skills that Sister Schoenlein plans to utilize in the new Collaborative Literacy Project.

He finished his article by writing:

One last thing. The sisters-tutors don’t like the word “retired.” “Just a group of mature women,” one offered. “Women of wisdom,” said another. “Put that in capital letters,” a third suggested. “Just say we’re taking our show on the road,” came the final response. “Teaching was always our life. Why not keep on doing what we do best?”

Mary Straub, a good friend, also shared memories.

Sister Ruth and I worked together in Detroit for many years. She has a special place in my heart.

In December of 1978 I received a phone call offering me the opportunity to adopt a child. Sister Ruth created a beautiful Christmas stocking for the baby, my son. Some years later I was offered the opportunity to adopt a little girl. Again Sister Ruth created a Christmas stocking for my daughter. Now, each Christmas they stand with their stockings and we talk about Sister Ruth. She was a great friend.

Kathy Garbacik, Sister Ruth’s niece, said:

When she first came to Maria, my husband and I came to visit her. We got the grand tour. You used to have a little store here with things made by the sisters, and she had us come to the store. She bought us an afghan. We still use it.

She had a gentle way of getting you to rethink things. One day we were walking and I said that my shoe lace kept coming untied. She said to me, “Why don’t you double tie it?” I said, “I don’t have time.” She said, “Yes, you do. Think about it.” So I thought about it and realized that she had given me the solution. She really would give you another way to think about things.

Sister Ruth’s funeral liturgy took place on March 1. Father Robert Kelly, OP, Motherhouse chaplain, was the presider and homilist. A few lines from Father’s homily are:

She loved God with all her heart, and was an example to us. We see that love in the poetry she wrote, the pictures she painted, and the love she had for her students. She also loved us. When we did something for her, she kissed our hands.

For Sister Ruth a new life has begun, a life with the God she loved above all else, and with the family and friends who preceded her. We rejoice with her.