Sister Theodora McKennan
1929-2011

Sister Theodora McKennan, better known as Sister Teddy, was beautiful in face, body and spirit. She stood out in any group. An intellectual who loved to study and teach, she also vehemently pursued justice for the poor. It has been said of her that she never uttered an unkind word or spoke in a derogatory fashion about anyone.

Sister Teddy was the daughter of Harold “Mac” and Helen (Nowak) McKennan. She followed her sister Mary Ellen, two years older than she, into the family on April 12, 1929, and her birth completed the family. In her autobiography Sister wrote of Mary Ellen, “She has always been my confidant and dearest friend. She taught me to read before I went to school, and I was convinced that she knew the answer to everything. Actually, I still believe that.”

The McKennans lived in Chicago, where Harold McKennan, a graduate of the University of Michigan, was an auditor for the Arthur Anderson Company. He was a Methodist, of Scottish and English descent, and was originally from Paris, Illinois. An interesting tidbit from Sister’s autobiography revealed that his parents, devout Methodists, had met at Adrian College in 1884. Sister wrote of her father, “He was so handsome and high-principled, easy-going and kind.” Helen Nowak was a native Chicagoan, of Irish and Bohemian descent, and a teacher. One of her uncles held the office of Police Chief in Chicago from 1923 to 1927, and was known as a foe of that era’s gangsters. Sister described her mother as loving and clear minded. “My earliest memory is of being held in my mother’s arms, and of the ecstatic experience of love, warmth, and security I felt there.” During the Great Depression, Harold McKennan lost his job, but found another as an auditor for the Federal Government.

Teddy attended kindergarten and first grade at Vanderpoel School. Transferred to St. Margaret School, she finished her elementary years there with the School Sisters of Notre Dame, also studying voice, piano, and organ. Her high school years were spent at the Academy of Our Lady, again with the Notre Dame Sisters. She was seventeen when she graduated in June 1946. An accomplished musician with a lovely singing voice, she volunteered to serve as assistant to the parish organist at St. Margaret Parish.

She had known for some time that God was calling her to serve him as a religious sister, but she said nothing to her parents. Instead she attended Chicago Teachers College. Toward the end of her first year, she told her mother of her desire to become a sister, and met strong opposition. As a result, she attended Teachers College for another year, and then Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a year. When it became plain that she was in earnest about entering a religious congregation, her mother asked her to find a community that would allow visits between her and her family. From some of her friends she heard good things about the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and decided that she would enter the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

On September 8, 1949, twenty years of age, she arrived in Adrian. Two days after receiving the postulant’s veil, she was sent to Owosso, Michigan, where she taught a combination of fourth and fifth graders for a year. She wrote that it was a good year. “The sisters were kind to me and gracious to my family when they came to visit.” She received the habit and her religious name (Sister Ellen Louise) on August 8, 1950. On August 3, 1951, Siena Heights College (now University) conferred a bachelor’s degree on her with a major in history and minors in English and mixed science, and she professed her first vows on August 9 of that year. Within a short time, she was on her way to Detroit to teach third grade at Presentation School. This began several years of one-year assignments to various schools in different parts of the country. She wrote, “On appointment day, my parents would stay at the telephone with a map of the United States, waiting to learn where my new mission was going to be.”

Her next assignment sent her to St. Augustin School in Des Moines, Iowa, where she taught seventh grade. The following year she was sent to Florida as an eighth grade teacher at St. Anthony School in Fort Lauderdale. In 1954 she moved to St. Jude School in St. Petersburg, Florida, as a teacher of second grade. Brought back to Michigan in 1955, she taught sixth grade at St. Mary School in Rockwood.

In 1956 the pattern was broken. She was assigned to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to teach religion, science, and music at Holy Name High School in Escanaba with her residence at St. Patrick Convent. She remained there for six years, and bonds of friendship were forged that continued until the end of her life. She studied during the summers for a master’s degree in modern European history, and received the degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1958. She left Escanaba in 1962 for Siena Heights College in Adrian, where she taught history, religion, and parliamentary law. The next year she was assigned to Regina High School in Midland, Michigan, teaching history, religion, and chorus. In 1964 her article, “A Look at a ‘Dark Age’,” appeared in the April-May edition of the Bulletin of the History Teachers’ Club of Notre Dame.

She had started work on a doctoral degree, and in 1965 she studied full-time at Loyola University in Chicago, residing at Queen of Angels Convent. In 1966 she received a Fulbright Scholarship from the Federal Government for study and research at Academia de Historia in Bogota, Colombia, South America. Sister Margaret Mary McGill, a Spanish teacher, went with her and helped her to learn the Spanish language. This year saw the birth of her interest in liberation theology.

She spent the next year teaching at Barry College (now University) in Miami, Florida, where she and Sister Molly Lorms became close friends, and the following year as a full-time student at Loyola University in Chicago with her residence again at Queen of Angels Convent. In 1969 she was assigned as house superior at Regina High School in Wilmette, Illinois. She received her doctoral degree from Loyola University in February 1970 with a major in American History and Latin, and minors in Modern and Medieval European History and English History. Her father was very ill, and her parents had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to be near Mary Ellen who had married Dan Fromm. Sister Teddy was able to visit often before her father’s death in May 1970. In order to be close to her mother, she accepted a position at Marquette University in Milwaukee for a year. For the next five years she alternated between Siena Heights College in Adrian and Barry College in Miami, Florida, where she taught Latin American history, including some liberation theology. In her autobiography she wrote, “In 1976 I decided I wanted to participate in the movement for liberation instead of teaching about it.” She applied to the Overseas Mission Vicariate for a position that was advertised, was accepted, and left for Lima, Peru.

Sister Teddy worked as a missionary in Pamplona Alta, near Ciudad de Dios, where a parish had been established by Maryknoll Missioners in what was known as a “squatter settlement.” “We were part of that team and received half of our living subsidy from Maryknoll.” The living conditions were very primitive. The people lived in shacks with no running water, telephones, or other modern conveniences, but the sisters rented the second floor of a more substantial house, which they found quite comfortable. Sister Teddy helped in the special education school which one of the sisters had started, worked with the women’s organization which studied various topics and eventually began a sewing and embroidery business, “making and selling beautiful garments.” She also worked with the parish choir, made up mostly of young people. She took part in many other activities sponsored by the Maryknoll parish team, guided by liberation theology—teaching night school classes, taking part in marches and demonstrations. In 1982 she earned a certificate from Maryknoll in Liberation Theology in North America.

She spent nine years in missionary work. Midway through these years she was invited to read a paper at a Jeremy Bentham (the subject of her doctoral dissertation) conference at University College in London, England. She and Sister Molly Lorms were able to take a short sightseeing trip through England and Scotland. In 1985 she earned a certificate in Theological Reflection from the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, Peru.

Suffering from respiratory problems, and knowing that her mother was unwell; she left this ministry in 1985, and became director of Guadalupe Pastoral Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Her ministry entailed working with Spanish-speaking Catholics. She spent six years there, and was able to visit with her mother in Milwaukee every week. Having earned a certificate from the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, in Religious Education, Advanced Level Formation, in 1991 she decided to return to Chicago and took the position of pastoral minister at Holy Family Parish. After two years, she moved to St. Simeon Parish where she spent six years. In these Chicago years, she and Sister Molly Lorms lived together. During her time there her mother died in 1997 on the anniversary of her husband’s death and at the age of 102 years.

Sister Teddy retired in 1999. She and Sister Molly returned to Regina Residence at the Motherhouse in Adrian, and Sister Teddy soon became director of St. Catherine Library, a ministry that was much appreciated. In 2008 an interesting two-page article about her appeared in Faith Magazine, a publication of the Lansing Diocese. Before long, however, God decided to take her to eternity. After a long fight with cancer, death came to her on June 21, 2011, at the age of eighty-two, five years after the death of her dear friend, Sister Molly.

A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Teddy on June 26 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Mary Ellen Youngblood, Prioress of Adrian Crossroads Mission Chapter, welcomed Mary Ellen and Dan Fromm, several nieces and nephews, and Sister Teddy’s many Dominican friends. She summarized Sister’s life and ministry, and concluded by praising the quality resource library that she maintained as well as the book reviews and other activities that she pursued in her library ministry.

Sister Barbara Gass, a volunteer in Catherine of Siena Library, said in part:

I had known Sister Teddy for some time, having lived with her in community at Barry. When I came to Adrian in 2004 she invited me to live with her. During that time, she was making regular visits to Sister Molly Lorms, who was infirm and at Maria. When I began helping in the library, I found that she was particular about how things were done, and I’m particular about things, too, so we got along very well. We library volunteers found her to be very easy to work with. Some of the qualities we enjoyed were her patience, . . . her even temperament, and her constant courtesy. She was really dedicated to the good of the library. She is greatly missed by all of us.

Sister Joan Marconi, a member of Sister Teddy’s “crowd,” also spoke.

In every crowd there are some individuals who stand out as bright stars, possessing special qualities. Sister Teddy was one such person in our crowd. . . . Being one of the younger postulants, I looked up to her as a role model. She never ceased to impress me with her graciousness and kindness to everyone. She was always happy and upbeat with a very contagious laugh. It was not until she returned to Adrian and served as librarian for the community here that I had a chance to reconnect with her. . . . I found that she still possessed those qualities I so admired from Novitiate days—a person who was never unkind or ever expressed hostility to another. She was still one of the most gracious people I have ever known.

Mary Ellen Fromm, Sister Teddy’s sister, came to the podium.

I don’t have anything beautiful prepared. But I do want to say that she was my beloved sister all her life, and she was always a part of our family. When Dan and I were here last week, she was anointed and it was beautiful. Father left the oil, so that we could all anoint her and pray for her. I anointed her and prayed for her, and it was wonderful. She was beautiful, never gloomy even when she knew that she was very ill. She radiated joy. She had a wonderful life, and I was fortunate to have shared it with her all these years.

Sister Magdalena Ezoe, one of the Congregation’s finest musicians, also shared.

At the time when she was sick, I gave the Jubilee concert. I practiced a lot in St. Catherine Chapel, and she asked me to turn the sound system on so she could listen to me practice. She loved classical music and was familiar with much of what I played. She liked the piece that I played just before the wake started tonight, and I played it for her.

Sister Teddy’s funeral liturgy took place on June 27, with Father Robert Kelly, OP, Motherhouse chaplain, as presider and homilist. She was then laid to rest in the Congregation cemetery.

Sister Mary Ellen Youngblood thanked God “for gifting this congregation with Sister Theodora Louise McKennan.” And so do all those who knew Sister Teddy, ministered with her, and loved her.