SISTER MARY PAULA CONNOR
1921-2007

In the last paragraph of her autobiography, Sister Paula described her earthly journey.

I am an American, a Catholic, an Adrian Dominican Sister, a teacher, and a preacher. I enjoy Biblical spirituality and a deepening relationship with Jesus. I am intelligent, creative, responsible, and sometimes sharp of tongue and critical. I notice that as I grow older, my gifts and my flaws diminish or blur. I love my family, my friends, my community, and the people I serve. This has been one wonderful, grace-filled journey, enlightened by the Gospels, and infused with God’s love.

Sister Paula’s ancestry was Irish on both her maternal and paternal sides. She was the daughter of Edmund Maurice and Katherine Marguerite (Cochrane) Connor. Both parents were born and brought up in Chicago, but they met in 1919 when they were among a group of young Chicago people who took an excursion boat to Sagatuck, Michigan. Edmund asked Katherine to dance and bought her a sundae. They married in February 1920.

Their first child was born on July 1, 1921, and baptized Katherine Marian but always called Marian, since her mother was Katherine and an Aunt Kate lived with the family. Three “Kates” were considered a bit too much. Four siblings followed Marian: Edmund, Ruth, Robert, and Margaret. Sister Paula described her mother as “an unusually gifted and creative woman,” one who loved God and taught her children to love God. She greatly influenced her children’s lives. Sister described her father as loving and gentle, and especially dear to her. He was well educated, and held a responsible position with Armour & Co.

The Connor family lived in Chicago. Everyone in the neighborhood was Irish, and at the age of seven Marian asked her mother whether everyone in the world was Irish. Her mother answered, “No,” and explained to her that she was “an American with Irish roots.” Perhaps the above description of her life’s journey is an outgrowth of what Sister Paula learned from her mother.

She wrote that her childhood was normal in every way. She attended St. Leo Elementary School with the Sisters of Providence, and won scholarships to four high schools. After a visit, she decided upon Aquinas High School. She loved the school and the sisters, and enjoyed “a rewarding learning experience” that included being co-editor of the school paper.

Upon graduation in June 1939, she wanted to enter the postulate at Adrian, but her parents asked that she attend college first. Again the Sisters of Providence were her teachers at St. Mary of the Woods in Terre Haute, Indiana. When she returned home for the Christmas break, her parents had thought the matter over and gave her their permission to enter the Adrian Congregation. She arrived in Adrian and received the postulant’s veil on June 24, 1940. She wrote of her pride in receiving the Dominican habit and her religious name. This occurred on January 7, 1941, followed by the required canonical novitiate year. With her “crowd,” she professed her first vows on January 8, 1942.

Most of Sister Paula’s teaching ministry was in Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio schools. Within a short time of profession, she was on the train for Illinois, where she taught sixth grade for the second semester of the 1942-43 school year, then moved to St. Clare of Montefalco in Chicago with fifth grade for the next two years. The Christmas season of 1944 was difficult for her and her family. Her mother died on December 14.

In June 1943, Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in history and speech.

In 1945 she began her high school ministry at St. Anthony in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she taught English, history, and religion for two years. She returned to Michigan in 1947 and taught for three years at St. Alphonsus in Dearborn and two years at St. Gabriel in Detroit. Throughout these years she had been working during the summers on a master’s degree in English at Loyola University in Chicago, and she received it in February 1949. In 1952 she was named superior and principal at St. Stephen Elementary School in Saginaw.

At the wake, Sister Miriam Catherine Kroha said:

She immediately involved the parents. She was ahead of her time in doing that. The parents helped in the classrooms, the library, and the office. They were a part of the school.

We also put on plays—several of them. . . . Sister Paula had every child in the school involved in the plays. If they couldn’t act, they worked on the set, the curtain, or did the props. They all felt worth something.

Upon finishing a successful term in administration, Sister Paula was sent to Hoban-Dominican High School in Cleveland, Ohio, for six years. In 1965 she served a year in administration at Mount St. Mary in St. Charles, Illinois, then returned to Detroit for two years as assistant principal and teacher of English at Dominican High School. In January 1966, she and her siblings buried their father.

From that time on, she ministered in Michigan schools. In 1967 she was again assigned as superior and principal, this time at St. Lawrence High School in Utica. Her assignment was publicized with her picture and an article in the Macomb Daily for August 24, 1967, and in the Utica Daily Sentinel for September 14, 1967. During summer 1970, she attended Creighton University of Omaha, Nebraska, and earned a certificate in individual instruction.

St. Lawrence High School closed in 1971. In her autobiography, she wrote:

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, we struggled to keep the Catholic schools open. The defeat of Proposal C sealed the fate of many schools. St. Lawrence High School closed, and the students had to attend public high schools.

Many of the students went to Adlai Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights. Sister Paula was offered many positions. She, however, applied to teach at Stevenson High School, and was hired to teach English and a course called “Bible Literature.” She wrote, “The Spirit was here in a big way for both the students and for me.” Again she received publicity. Her picture and an article appeared in The Detroit News for November 26, 1971. She taught at Stevenson High School for thirteen years.

She wrote of her opportunities to travel.

My opportunities brought me to Italy with Latin students; to England, Ireland, and Scotland to share their riches and beauty; to Spain with my sister Margaret to enjoy the history and art; and to Israel to see where Jesus walked and preached.

She also wrote of her love of animals. “I cannot explain the richness three dogs have added to my life.” Perky I lived with her and the other sisters in Saginaw, Perky II came into her life in 1972 for fourteen years, and Rachel, from 1984 to her death in 1999.

In 1984 Sister Paula requested a sabbatical year, and spent it at St. John Seminary in Plymouth. When finished, she accepted a position as pastoral minister at St. Kieran Parish in Shelby Township.

In these same years I began the “Little Rock Bible Series” at St. Ephrem [Sterling Heights], and, joined by Sister Miriam Catherine Kroha, taught in St. Kieran and other Vicariate parishes. We taught our sisters, our parishioners in small groups and large ones, and anyone who would have us. The Word walked with us and spoke through us.

At the wake, Sister Miriam Catherine also spoke of those years. “We graced the Church with our teaching and preaching. In turn, the members graced us with their kind of care—homemade food.” Sister Peg O’Flynn, Great Lakes Chapter Prioress, said, “These two Dominican women were itinerant preachers who taught and preached in parishes, in small groups, in convents, and to anyone who would listen.”

In 1996, after over eleven years of this interesting work, Sisters Paula and Miriam Catherine retired, but volunteered their services. Two pages of the St. Kieran Parish bulletin for June 23, 1996, were devoted to their farewell. In her autobiography, Sister Paula wrote that she continued as a volunteer to teach Scripture, and preside at Communion and Wake services. With failing health, both returned to the Dominican Life Center/Maria in 2005, where Sister Paula resided until her death on April 28, 2007.

A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Paula in St. Catherine Chapel on April 30. Present were her brothers and sisters-in-law Ed and Mary Ann from Seattle, Washington, and Bob and Mary Emily from Mississippi; her sister Margaret from Missouri; several nieces and nephews; and her many Dominican friends. Her sister Ruth had died in 1997.

Sister Margaret (Peg) O’Flynn, Prioress of Great Lakes Mission Chapter, opened the service and welcomed those who had come to bid Sister Paula farewell. She summarized Sister Paula’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last days.

Sister Paula had much in order prior to her death. Her move into Adrian enabled her to let go of much. She had her autobiography and, yes, her completed budget for 2007-08. I was here on campus this past Wednesday . . . and upon arrival, word was that Sister Paula was very low and to get to her room quickly. Well, she rallied that morning and was ready to keep her appointment with me. She had even budgeted for a vacation to Omaha!

Sister Agnes Carmel Drziak, a member of Sister Paula’s “crowd,” and a resident of the Dominican Life Center said:

After she came here, I saw her quite often. On Saturday at about 9:15 in the morning, I got this inspiration to go and see her. So I went to her room. She was lying on her bed . . . and she was barely breathing. So I stayed there and prayed with her. After about the third decade of the Rosary, there came a change. She opened her eyes briefly and smiled at me, then went to God. I thank God for allowing me to be there.

Ed Connor, Sister Paula’s nephew, told some interesting stories. One was:

I was in Ireland in 1977 traveling up the west coast, and I stopped in a lodge. After dinner, I was sitting by the fireplace with an elderly couple. The man was the former bishop of the Church of Ireland. He said to me, “Your name is Connor? My cleric is named Connor.” I said, “We’re Catholic.” He told me that the Catholics were called O’Connor. The fact that there was no “O” before our name meant that our family was originally Protestant.

When he told Sister Paula this, she said that it was true—that during the potato famine one of the Connor young women went to America and married a farmer by the name of O’Connor. They brought her two younger brothers to the States. The farmer insisted that they had to be baptized Catholic, but they did not change their name. “Sister Paula told me that’s how we became Catholic. I was shaken! But I realized that I had an aunt who was a nun, and that was a great source of pride.”

Paul Connor, a nephew and Sister Paula’s namesake, chanted in her honor a Yoga prayer from India.

John Connor, another nephew, spoke of her visits to them in Omaha, Nebraska. “She looked different from other people in the clothes that you wore then. We weren’t sure whether nuns had ears.” He went on to speak of her sense of humor and how much he enjoyed his time with her.

Sister Paula’s sister-in-law, her brother Ed’s wife, also spoke.

She was a proud woman in a nice way. Everything she did was done well. She had style! She was proud in a way that means pleased and grateful. She was very proud and pleased with her brothers’ and sisters’ accomplishments and the accomplishments of their children. . . . She was proud and grateful for her Catholic Faith. She taught and spread it whenever and wherever she could. She was proud and happy to be an Adrian Dominican. . . . Being a sister was the most important thing to her. . . .She was proud and pleased to be a teacher. I think she was a person who knew who she was, in the best sense. There were no pretensions and no masks.

Sister Paula’s sister Margaret praised her older sister.

Sister Paula was probably one of the best friends that I’ve ever had, besides being my big sister. She was a generous, loving person. . . . I don’t know what I’ll do without her. It’s going to be hard. Thank you for the prayers and support you gave her when she was dying.

Sister Paula’s funeral was celebrated on May 1, 2007. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist. Father Thomas Johnson, pastor of St. Kieran, concelebrated. A bus had brought many parishioners from St. Kieran, who came to show their remembrance, love, and respect for Sister Paula.

She now rests in the Adrian Dominican cemetery, with the sisters she loved and admired and who went to eternity before her.