SISTER VIRGINIA KLECKNER
1934-2007

Although a native of the Midwest, Sister Virginia Kleckner loved the Southwest. She lived and ministered for many years in that area. At the wake, Sister Lois Paha said, “She was most at home in the Southwest, and I pray that God will welcome her to her heavenly home with the brightness and beauty of the Arizona sunsets she shared all these years!”

Virginia was the first child born to Lowell and Margaret (Hartman) Kleckner. At the time of her birth, April 28, 1934, the family was living in Monterey, Indiana. In time, a sister and brother, Phyllis and Gerald (Jerry), followed her into the family. She wrote that her mother was one of eleven children, and that her father was not a Catholic and never became a Catholic. Lowell Kleckner worked for the Sinclair Oil Company, and Margaret Kleckner was an employee of J.C. Penney Company, working out of her home.

The Kleckner youngsters attended  public schools—Lincoln School in Calumet City, Illinois, then Sinclair School in Sinclair,Wyoming, when their father was transferred there. Sister Virginia wrote, “I really didn’t care for Wyoming, as I remember it being windy and snaky.” When they moved back to Illinois, she attended a Catholic school for a brief time, and a junior high school in Lansing, Illinois. She finished her secondary education at Thornton Township High School in Harvey.

Upon graduation in June 1952, she went to work at a savings and loan company for a year, and also took an active part in the young people’s club at Ascension Church, Harvey. In her autobiography she wrote that the pastor asked for four young people to help him and to serve as teachers, but she doesn’t say whether in the school or the catechetical program. Virginia took one of the positions, but does not tell us whether she was a paid teacher or a volunteer. She worked with fifth graders, and had a Dominican teaching partner, Sister Linus (Mildred) Dubbs. “She was wonderful.” This experience began her call to religious life.

Her mother, brother, and sister supported her desire to enter the Adrian Dominicans, but at first her father did not. “Eventually he came around.” Virginia was in Adrian on June 27, 1954, to accept the postulant’s veil. Within a few months, she was sent to St. James School in Maywood, Illinois, to minister in fifth grade. When she returned to Adrian for the Christmas season, she received the habit and her religious name (Sister Phyllis Mary) on December 30 and began the required canonical novitiate year that ended in profession of first vows on December 31, 1955.

For the first eleven years after profession, she taught in Michigan schools. She was kept in Adrian for the second semester of the 1955-56 school year, and taught fourth grade at St. Joseph Academy. The next year she was sent to St. Edward School in Detroit, where for five years she taught on the primary and middle grade levels. In 1961 she traveled to the Upper Peninsula, spending five years in both second and fifth grade levels at SS. Mary and St. Joseph School in Iron Mountain. In November 1964 she returned to Illinois to be a comfort to her mother and siblings at her father’s death and to attend his funeral.

Beginning with 1969, the next eleven years were in Illinois, teaching primary and middle grade students. After spending three years at St. Ailbe in Chicago, she became superior and principal at St. Joseph in Rockdale. It may be that administration was not to her liking, for this position lasted only a year. Then she moved to Joliet, where she taught for three years at the East Side Learning Center, a year at St. Mary School, and served in the Catholic School Office for three years.

In 1977 she began her ministry in the West and Southwest, beginning with Junipero Serra Elementary School in Carmel, California. Her mother had moved to Arizona, and after four years in California, Sister Virginia left the classroom and also moved to Arizona. She ministered there for twenty-six years. For eight years she served in Phoenix, six years as Director of Religious Education at St. Jerome Parish and three years as administrator of St. Augustine Parish. Her administrative years were cut short by her election as Chapter Prioress of the Southwest Mission Chapter in 1990, with her office in Mesa.

Her mother had also moved to Mesa, and they lived together for a time. Two periods of grief assailed Sister Virginia. Her mother and her sister Phyllis died within a year of each other. After her mother’s death in 1995, she continued to live in her mother’s home.

When her six-year term as Chapter Prioress ended in 1996, she remained in Mesa and took a position as administrative assistant at All Saints Parish. In 2003, sixty-nine years of age, she retired and volunteered her services to the St. Vincent De Paul Society. At the wake Sister Arlene Seckel spoke of her ministry there. “She spent hours answering requests for assistance, sorting donated food, making home visits, and serving as Treasurer of the Conference. All the volunteers appreciated her dedication.”

Sister Virgina remained in Mesa until January 2007, when she returned to Adrian. At the wake, Sister Joan Sustersic said:

Late in 2006, Sister Virginia realized that something was definitely wrong because she was forgetting things. . . . Tests revealed a brain tumor. The surgeon removed as much of the tumor as he could, but said that this type of malignant tumor was not generally successfully treated. Sister Virginia chose to have neither radiation nor chemo, but came to live at the Dominican Life Center and chose membership in Holy Rosary Mission Chapter. These last were difficult months for her, who dearly missed her friends and the climate in the Southwest. She had friends in Michigan, but was never truly comfortable with our weather.

Death came to Sister Virginia on June 1.

Her wake-remembrance service was held in St. Catherine Chapel on June 7. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service and extended sympathy to Sister Virginia’s brother Jerry and his wife Connie, several nieces and nephews, and the many Dominican and other friends who had gathered to bid her farewell. Sister Joan summarized Sister Virginia’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last days.

She always wanted to be doing something. Reading had been her passion. Always she wanted to be kept busy. She shredded tons of paper for us. She had a need to know exactly what was happening—what medications she was taking and why. . . . Because she tended to forget things, she had books in which she wrote the names of people and who they were—then she couldn’t find the information.

In early March, as her condition began a visible decline, she was elated when she was offered hospice care. I cannot say enough for the Hospice of Lenawee staff and volunteers, for their wonderful attention to Sister Virginia’s needs, their efforts in keeping her comfortable, and in working with our staff.

She knew when she came to Adrian that she was facing death. Impending death didn’t cause fear, but the unknown did. . . . We assured her that we loved her and would be there for her until she was in the arms of the Lord.

Sister Lois Paha spoke of her friendship with Sister Virginia.

Sister Virginia entered my life in the early ‘80s when we both ministered in Phoenix, Arizona. Our family backgrounds from the Chicago area gave us some common points of conversation in the beginning. . . . When she was elected Chapter Prioress, we knew that she would do a great job with both the details and the women. I was privileged to assist her with several of the Chapter Assembly preparations and was always grateful for her trust in my gifts. . . . She left an indelible mark on the sisters in the Southwest. I give thanks for the blessing that she has been in my life, the lives of so many Adrian women, and the people of God.

Sister Barbara Stanek, who succeeded Sister Virginia as Chapter Prioress, sent a message. She wrote in part:

I was so grateful to Sister Virginia during my term as Chapter Prioress, especially in the beginning years. While never breaching a confidence, she was always willing to listen and help me shed light on a situation. She was generous with her well-chosen words of wisdom! And she only offered them when asked. . . . This made for a smooth transition and a fruitful ministry of leadership for me.

Sister Sharon McGuire sent a fax that was read. She wrote:

We came to know each other when she was Chapter Prioress of the Southwest Chapter and I was ministering in El Paso [Texas]. We vacationed together in Seattle with the then Edmonds Dominicans in 1991.

I will always remember Sister Virginia as diminutive but stalwart, full of courage and a sense of reality, warm and hospitable, as a good and responsive listener, someone who was open to learning more about the world, and as a true and trustworthy friend.

Sister Janice Scholl also paid tribute to Sister Virginia.

I have known Sister Virginia for at least twenty-five years. We vacationed together many times and enjoyed each other’s company.

When she was the Southwest Chapter Prioress, I was her administrative assistant for three of those years. She was always available to speak to, or visit with, the sisters. She was a woman of clarity, insight, perception, and faith-filled vision, a wise listener who could pull things together. She was a very organized, no-nonsense, get-it-done-now person, not one to have more than what she really needed.

She encouraged me when I made the move to go to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nevada. She came often to Henderson to visit, and we kept in touch with phone calls every few weeks. . . . After she made the move to Adrian, I called her every week to encourage her and ensure her of my prayers and support. I will miss her, miss those phone calls, miss the visits to Henderson, miss the times that we shared a room at our Chapter assemblies. She has been a good friend and a good and faithful servant of the Lord.

Sister Arlene Seckel, who had been Prioress of the South East Adrian Mission Council and served with Sister Virginia on the Leadership Council, also spoke. She mentioned that she and her sister had moved to Arizona, and how good Sister Virginia was to them, especially when they were ill.

Although Sister Virginia and I were in the novitiate at the same time, we really did not get to know one another until 1990.

One of her favorite activities included watching the Phoenix Suns’ basketball games on television. She was an avid reader and occasionally enjoyed a good movie. She enjoyed going to Laughlin, Nevada, to relax and visit a casino or two. She loved being along the Colorado River.

She was a true friend and sister to many of us in the Southwest. She reached out to those most in need and never complained about the time it took to be with people. She was a woman of prayer, loved a good time, and lived each day to the fullest extent possible.

Sister Virginia’s funeral was held in St. Catherine Chapel on June 8. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider, and Sister Mary Pat Dewey , who had served on the Leadership Council with Sister Virginia, was the homilist. Part of her homily is quoted:

All of us face fears about our bodies as we age and our bodies change. Daily we have our own losses. When we lose our ability to walk or lose our speech or lose our ability to see and hear, we do become afraid.

Sister Virginia was not afraid to die. She came here and told us that the doctors said that she would die in a matter of months. She expected to have six months. She accepted this reality just as she had accepted many other things in her life. She said “yes” to God from the beginning. She was at peace with dying in the near future, and wanted to make the most of her time with us. She wanted to be active, to be a part of things here, to participate in daily Mass. She was delighted when people took her out to eat or for a walk or for ice cream. She was also very grateful for all who cared for her and for those who came to visit.

On a small cross that Sister Virginia treasured, the words “I am with you always” were imprinted. She kept this cross at her bedside, and sometimes held it in her hand. Sister Mary Pat called to our attention that Sister Virginia’s entire life was a journey to God, as are all our lives, and called her a “valiant woman” and God, “the faithful lover who pursued her.” She does not want us to grieve for her like those who have no hope.

She does not want us to grieve for her, but it is plain that there are many friends who will miss her sorely in the future. We know, however, that she is now with the God that she spent her whole life serving, and with the loved ones who preceded her.