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(1928-2026)
Sister Margaret Urban, formerly known as Sister Michael Elizabeth, died on Friday, February 6, 2026, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 97 years of age and in the 77th year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Margaret was born in Detroit to Michael and Elizabeth (Kulwicki) Urban. She graduated from Dominican High School in Detroit and received a bachelor’s degree in English from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian, a master’s degree in English from DePaul University in Chicago, and a master’s degree in psychology/substance abuse counseling from Mercy College (University of Detroit Mercy) in Detroit.
Sister Margaret ministered in elementary and secondary education for 20 years in Chicago, Illinois; and in Detroit, Adrian, and Jackson, Michigan. She served the Congregation for three years as Director of Apostolate for Immaculate Conception Province and two years as secretary for the SEAC Chapter Office, both in Detroit.
She also served for nine years in pastoral ministry in Midland and Dearborn, Michigan and ministered with the Genesee Catholic Education Office in Flint, Michigan; for the Archdiocese of Detroit; and for the U.S. Catholic Commission Office in Lansing, Michigan, for a total of 12 years. She was a substance abuse therapist and EAP psychotherapist for nine years at hospitals in Port Huron and St. Clair, Michigan. Sister became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 2016.
Sister Margaret was preceded in death by her parents and two sisters, Anastasia Kosmalski and Elizabeth Wyles. She is survived by other loving family members and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Visitation will be held from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, in the gathering space of St. Catherine Chapel. The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 11, 2026, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 12, 2026. Prayers of Committal will be held in the Congregation Cemetery.
Those not attending services in person are welcome to participate via live stream at https://adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.
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)
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 Margaret'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 Margaret's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
LEFT: Margaret at about the age of 1. MIDDLE LEFT: First Holy Communion. MIDDLE RIGHT: Margaret with her parents, Elizabeth and Michael, on her high school graduation day.
LEFT: From left, Sisters Margaret Urban and Kathleen Gaynor. RIGHT: Sister Margaret in her social work ministries, 1980s.
LEFT: Back row, from left, Sisters Marie Solanus Reilly, Elizabeth Flaherty, and Helen Mack, and front row, from left, Sisters Patricia Sporer, Kathleen Gaynor, and Margaret Urban. RIGHT: Sisters Margaret Urban, left, with her classmate, Sister Mary DeSlaes Herman, CSSF, at Sister Margaret’s Golden Jubilee, 1998.
Members of the 1998 Golden Jubilee December 1948 crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Judith Mary Singer, Mary Catherine Jordan, Marie Geraldine Brownell, Mary D. O’Connor, John Norton Barrett, and Joyce Banks; middle row, from left, Sisters Joan Sopha, Nora Brady, Mary Schmagner, Celestine Dunne, Margaret Urban, Therese DeCanio, and Patricia Wiley; and front row, from left, Sisters Mary E. Quinn, Mary Helen Mack, Dorothy Thielk, Mary Frances Radtke, Patricia Ann Hurley, Marion O’Connor, and Alice Riegel. Sister Catherine Eggleston is not pictured.
Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.
(1939-2026)
When Sister Barb Cervenka died in early 2026, she had the rare honor of having her passing mourned by the government of another country; Brazil’s Ministry for Culture issued a press release that read in part:
Barbara Cervenka’s passing represents a significant loss for the field of visual arts, art education, and policies for the appreciation of Afro-diasporan art, areas in which she dedicated her life with commitment, sensitivity, and historical vision.
… Barbara Cervenka’s legacy will live on in the institutions she helped to strengthen, in the cultural policies she inspired, and in the works that now permanently integrate into Brazil’s cultural heritage.
Barbara Florence Cervenka was born September 28, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, to James and Florence (Balzer) Cervenka. She was the older of the couple’s two children; a sister, Anita, came into the family three years after Barb’s birth.
Florence was in remission from Hodgkin’s disease at the time Barb was born, and her health declined over the next few years. Although her illness often made her tired and even short-tempered, “I can remember her sitting on the floor and playing board games with me,” Sister Barb wrote in her autobiography. “I remember walking with her to the store, with Anita in a ‘Taylor-Tot.’ I remember listening to my favorite program, ‘Baby Snooks,’ with her and my Dad. I remember our Christmas tree and how magical it was.”
Barb was only five years old when her mother died, and “losing her was one of the most significant events of my life,” she wrote. The children first went to live with their maternal grandparents, then lived with their father’s parents when their Grandma Balzer became ill and returned to the Balzers when Grandma Cervenka died. Although the children were well loved by their grandmothers, and Barb and Anita were close, Barb still found herself very lonely and “lived a lot in my imagination,” she wrote. She discovered drawing – especially pictures of horses – and it became her refuge.
Read more about Sister Barbara (PDF)
Recording of Sister Barb'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 Barb's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1930-2026)
In preparing my autobiography, I recognize that it is all about God’s love for me that has been there, guiding my life. I am very grateful that I have loved and served people of all ages and received love in return. And it is God’s love that will carry me Home.
Sister Thérèse Haggerty’s autobiography began with her reflecting on how the hand of God had long prepared her to become an Adrian Dominican Sister even though she spent thirty-one years of religious life in a different congregation, and it ended with the paragraph cited above. In between lies a fascinating life story.
Thérèse Mary Haggerty was born July 24, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, to Hugh Alphonsus and Thérèse Ann (Fay) Haggerty, who was nicknamed Teddy. Both parents were of Irish descent; Hugh’s parents were born in County Donegal, Ireland, while Ann’s grandparents came from County Cork, Ireland, and settled in Boston.
Hugh, who left school in the sixth grade to help support his family, enlisted in the Army at age seventeen and was sent to France to fight in World War I. There, he was badly wounded and was actually thought to be dead until a nurse saw the sheet that was over him move.
He and Thérèse Ann met after the war on a train from Washington, D.C., to New York, when she was walking from one car to another, slipped, and he caught her. They were married in 1923 in Brooklyn.
The couple had two boys who both died in infancy before Thérèse was born. Before Thérèse arrived, her mother prayed to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus that if her baby was a girl and survived, she would name her Thérèse Mary. Even so, Thérèse’s nickname was always Peggy, after Thérèse Ann’s friend who was also named Thérèse but was called Peggy.
Two children followed Thérèse into the family: Hugh Aloysius (known as Buddy) and Helen Agnes. Hugh remarried two years after his wife died of cancer and three more children were born to him and Thérèse’s stepmother: Mary Jane, Patricia Ann, and Kathryn Marie.
Read more about Sister Thérèse (PDF)
Recording of Sister Thérèse'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 Thérèse's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1982-2026)
In 1999, Father Theodore Kuchnirtz, OP, a German Dominican priest at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Tungkang, Taiwan, saw a need for outreach to the many members of his parish who were natives of the Philippines. Some were the wives of Taiwanese men, while others were immigrant workers.
The Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies responded to Father Kuchnirtz’s call for a religious community native to the Philippines to undertake this ministry. And, in time, as other local priests saw the importance of this work, the ministry expanded to other places, including Kaohsiung, a city near Tungkang.
It was there, in 2013, that the Remedies Sisters, by that time part of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, first met a young Filipina named Meliza Arquillano, who was working in Taiwan for a semiconductor company. Meliza was introduced by a friend who knew she was interested in religious life to the Sisters missioned in the area – Sisters Victoria Changcoco and Maribeth Manquil – and, that October, returned to her homeland and entered the convent.
Meliza was born on October 7, 1982, in Cavite City in the southern Philippines. She was the youngest child born to German Dominguez and Leonilla Arquillano, following brothers German Jr., Roger, and Roland.
Read more about Sister Meliza (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221.
Recording of Sister Meliza's (and Sister Rosita's) Mass of Remembrance - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as."
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