(1930-2025)

Alice was a true daughter of St. Dominic – living the vows: simple life, sharing what she had with others, always being obedient to what the Congregation was asking of her and loving God with her whole soul, mind and spirit. She always gave herself 100 percent to whatever she was asked to do – even if it meant going to Puerto Rico when she didn’t know Spanish.

This description of Sister Alice Riegel came from her good friend Sister Mary Kay Homan in her homily for Sister Alice’s funeral. “Alice has many titles: sister, aunt, friend, confidante, supporter, and cheerleader – giving people the strength to make difficult decisions and to see God’s hand in any decision,” Sister Mary Kay continued. “Alice was my FRIEND. She was a gift from God.”

Alice Agnes Riegel was born on July 28, 1930, at a hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, not far from the couple’s home on Detroit’s west side, to Alden and Laura (Ouellette) Riegel. She was the couple’s first child, born just two days shy of their second wedding anniversary. Three more children were to follow: Mary Lou, Carol Anne, and William Alden.

The country was in the early months of the Great Depression, and the Riegels felt the impact. The day after Alice was born, Alden came to the hospital to bring his wife a small cradle that had been passed down through the family, filled with flowers. When Laura wondered how he could be there instead of at work, he told her that he had lost his job. He later went to work at a dairy.

After Mary Lou was born, the family moved to a different home a few miles away. They attended St. Brigid Church and, in the parish school, “God’s plan for me began,” she wrote in her autobiography – for there, she was taught by the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Read more about Sister Alice (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

Vigil and Funeral Recordings

Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.

Recording of Sister Alice's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Recording of Sister Alice's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.

(1945-2025)

  

When Maria Farney, principal of St. Mary School in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, nominated Sister Peggy Fornicola for the Catholic Holy Family Society’s Teacher Legacy Award in 2010, Maria wrote:

For forty-seven years Sister Peggy has taught hundreds of children not only to read and write, but also taught them to love their faith and prepared them to receive the sacraments and become active members of the church. … Sister Peggy Fornicola, through her untiring dedication to all God’s children, has left a lasting impact in the lives of the children and the community where she serves.

Sister Peggy went on to win the honor, given by the Catholic Holy Family Society to just one elementary-school teacher every year. It came a few years before her retirement from a teaching ministry that, remarkably, included only three schools in her entire fifty years in education.

Mary Margaret Fornicola, better known as Peggy, was born on November 30, 1945, in Sault Ste. Marie, the city to which she later returned to teach and then to live during her retirement. She was the second oldest of four children born to Joseph and Bernadette (Juers) Fornicola, following Charles and before Phyllis and Karen.

Joseph started out in business for himself as a tanner and later became a barber. The Fornicola family was quite well known in the Sault Ste. Marie community; as Sister Peggy’s nephew Charles explained it in his remembrance at Sister’s wake:

For those not so familiar with the Sault, the Fornicola name is hard not to stumble upon. My great-uncle Tom and Aunt Carolyn started the legacy with his business and their “Fornicola” trailer park, complete with a Fornicola Ave. My cousin Tom carried that legacy forward, owning local businesses around town such as the Dairy Queen, several Subway sandwich shops (and) a self-storage and involving himself in plenty of community activity. We would joke that he could have run for mayor anytime he’d have liked.

Read more about Sister Mary Margaret (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

Vigil and Funeral Recordings

Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.

Recording of Sister Peggy's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Recording of Sister Peggy's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.

(1948-2025)

It was at twelve noon on Saturday, November 13, 1948, that I made my entrance into this world. I was dark haired, olive complected and all of eight pounds six ounces at birth. That’s on record at the hospital in Detroit. However, my father insists that he stopped at a traffic light, heard a baby crying and rescued me from a snow bank.

This lighthearted paragraph begins Sister Donna Baker’s autobiography, which goes on to trace her family’s history and her grandparents’ roots.

Her paternal grandparents were both born in Newfoundland and met while working on a fishing boat, where he was a fisherman and she was a cook. When the town was destroyed by fire, the family migrated to Nova Scotia, where Sister Donna’s father, Patrick, was born. Her grandfather came to Detroit in 1923 to find work, and the rest of his family joined him later that year.

As for her other set of grandparents, they met and married in Bremen, Indiana. Her grandfather, a Jitney driver, was killed along with almost everyone in his vehicle when he stopped at a rail crossing to let a train pass but did not see that another train was coming in the other direction. Her grandmother eventually remarried, but until she did, she had to work to support her children, and so her sister helped raise them. Two of the three children – Sister Donna’s mother, Virginia, and Virginia’s sister – spent a year at St. Joseph Academy.

Patrick, who was twenty-one when the Great Depression began, spent much of his early adulthood traveling the country by rail and car, working odd jobs. Finally, at age thirty-two, he felt ready to settle down. He and Virginia met outside a shoemaker’s business in Detroit, courted, married, and settled in the Detroit suburb of Redford.

Donna was the couple’s second child of nine: four boys (Bill, Dennis, Michael, and Patrick) and five girls (besides Donna, there were Sharron, Colleen, Linda, and Mary). Redford was a place of wide open spaces for the children to play, and Sister Donna wrote in her autobiography of playing baseball in the street and croquet in the yard, making tunnels out of cardboard boxes, piling leaves waist-high in which to jump, and most especially, taking Sunday rides to the ice cream parlor.

Read more about Sister Donna (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

Vigil and Funeral Recordings

Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.

Recording of Sister Donna's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Recording of Sister Donna's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.

(1934-2025)

Sister Dorothy Booms, formerly known as Sister Rose Alphonsus Booms, died on Monday, August 18, 2025, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian. She was 90 years of age and in the 72nd year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

Sister Dorothy was born in Harbor Beach, Michigan, to Marcus and Mary (Klee) Booms. She graduated from SS. Peter and Paul High School in Ruth, Michigan, and received a bachelor’s degree in French from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian and a master’s degree in elementary education from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. 

She ministered 31 years in education in Utica, Iron Mountain, Escanaba, and Norway, Michigan; Chicago, Rockford and Joliet, Illinois; Des Moines, Iowa; Tallahassee and Melbourne, Florida; and Lemon Grove, California. This included seven years as principal at Dickinson Area Catholic School in Iron Mountain. She served five years at the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, as secretary for the Religious Education Department, and ministered for five years at St. Bernard Parish in Alpena, Michigan, where she was secretary and bookkeeper. 

She ministered for two years as secretary for the Consortium of Hope for Oakland Inner-City Catholic Education (CHOICE) in Oakland, California; during this time, she also served the Congregation as secretary for the Dominican West Chapter in California. She also served the Congregation for six years as secretary for the Southeast Adrian Chapter (SEAC) in Farmington Hills, Michigan, two years in Transportation /Residence Services, and four years in the Archives Office. Sister became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 2007.

Sister Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents and siblings Ann Berryhill and Donald, William, and Helen Booms. She is survived by four sisters: Grace England, Arlene Davenport, Rosemarie Booms, and Joan (Martin) Miller; four brothers: Raymond (Marjean), Dennis (Patricia), Lawrence (Judy), and Leroy (Susan) Booms; other loving family and her Adrian Dominican Sisters. 

Visitation will be held from 6:30-7:00 pm on Monday, August 25, 2025, in the Gathering Space of St. Catherine Chapel. The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 pm Monday, August 25, 2025, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 am Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Prayers of Committal will be held in the Congregation Cemetery. Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221.

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

 

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

Vigil and Funeral Recordings

Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.

Recording of Sister Dorothy's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

Recording of Sister Dorothy's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)

 

LEFT: First Holy Communion, 1942. MIDDLE LEFT: 1952 graduate of Saints Peter and Paul High School, Ruth, Michigan. RIGHT: Sister Dorothy (Rose Alphonsus) with her parents, Mary and Marcus Booms. 

LEFT: Sister Dorothy with students in her classroom in Iron Mountain, Michigan. RIGHT: From left, Sisters Dorothy Booms, Mary Eileen Sullivan, and Michael Claire Wilson. 

LEFT: Sisters Dorothy Booms, left, and Paul James Villemure volunteer at Office Support Services at the Motherhouse, February 2015. RIGHT: Members of Sister Dorothy’s “crowd” are, from left: Sisters Lorraine Sinn, Lorraine Pepin, Marguerite Renuart, Frances Madigan, Cora Marie Campbell, and Dorothy Booms.

LEFT: Members of the 2012 Diamond Jubilarian Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Dorothy Booms, Lorraine Pepin, Carolyn Nelson, Reta Drexler, Arlene Marie Kosmatka, Frances Madigan, and Attracta Kelly (Prioress); middle row, from left, Sisters Kathryn Hartnett, Marguerite Renuart, Maureen Keeler, Lorraine Sinn, and Cora Marie Campbell; and front row, from left, Sisters Anne Cenci, Ann Kelly, Joann Weigang, and Magdalena Ezoe. RIGHT: Community members from Livonia, Michigan, enjoying a meal together are, from left, Sisters Colette Madden, Mary Jane Schallert, Adrianna Emery, Bridget Maier, Lenore Boivin, and Dorothy Booms.

Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.