(1932-2026)

For Mary White, the path to entering religious life in Washington State began in Minnesota and wended its way through Kansas.

Mary Frances White entered the world in the tiny farming town of Montevideo, Minnesota, on July 30, 1932. She was the third of Henry and Frances (Jahn) White’s five children, joining David and Laura in the family. Paul was born when Mary was about five years old, and a third boy, Joseph, was born in 1943 but sadly only lived to be about nine months old.

Henry was a mechanic, and even before Mary’s birth the family had moved several times because it was hard for him to find work in that difficult economic era. And so, it was no surprise that when she was six months old, they moved yet again, this time to Newton, Kansas. They moved into Henry’s mother’s home, which she had vacated to become the housekeeper for her youngest son who had been ordained to the priesthood. Since Henry only made about $25 a week, this certainly saved on housing costs for them.

A chicken coop on the property not only allowed Frances to make some money selling eggs, but was also the source of a family story:

My brother swears [he and Laura] were trying to entertain me. Whatever their motives, or how they accomplished it, I don’t know, but when my mother looked out the window she saw me in the wagon being pulled along the ridge of the chicken house roof. This may account for my inordinate fear of heights.

Thanks to a correspondence course Henry took in machinist training, in 1937 he was able to get a job as a machinist at the Cardwell Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, and the family moved once more. Mary’s early schooling came in Wichita at Blessed Sacrament School, where “I was fortunate to be able to attend kindergarten with a marvelous Sister who sought to bring out the artistic side of her students,” she wrote.

Her memories of her earliest years in Newton had been of “pasture and hedges and cows and one elderly neighbor lady who seemed to like us and invited us over rather often.” Now, living on the outskirts of Wichita with open fields in which to roam and a rather long walk to school, “my love of solitude began.”

Read more about Sister Mary (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 Services, 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 Mary'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 Mary's Memorial 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.

(1938-2026)

Maureen gave herself with such heart to [the] struggle for justice and with those living on the edges. She was committed to pushing beyond her own perceived limitations. She was committed to doing whatever she could to encourage women, including herself, to believe in themselves, to develop their talents and capacities to thrive and flourish for the sake of the whole.

These words were part of Sister Esther Kennedy’s funeral homily for Sister Maureen Gallagher, whose ministries included serving Chicago’s marginalized, founding a national organization focused on women’s issues, and helping find markets for products made by women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to support their families.

Maureen was a product of Chicago, born on October 6, 1938, to Donald and Helen (Loftus) Gallagher. In their South Side neighborhood within St. Kilian Parish, “everyone was Irish with a few Germans and everyone knew everyone,” she wrote in her autobiography. “As a youngster I thought everyone was Irish.”

Maureen was the second oldest child of five in the family: three girls (Donna, Joan, and herself) and two boys (John and Terrence). Their father, Donald, was a Chicago firefighter who rose to the rank of battalion chief. Firefighters were exempt from the draft during World War II because of their vital role if their city was attacked, but Donald was part of the civil-defense structure in another way as well: he would go out at night to make sure residents had their window shades drawn tight so that no light came through to potentially provide a target for enemy bombers.

As for Helen, she had a home-based business as a beautician. “My father could fix or build anything,” Sister Maureen wrote, and with the help of another firefighter to do the electrical work, he remodeled the family garage into a beauty salon. When the Sisters stopped wearing the habit, Helen became the beautician for many of them in the area.

Maureen attended St. Kilian School, where she excelled at sports even though by her own admission she was a poor student. It was determined in later years that she was actually dyslexic. Her high school years were spent at Mount St. Mary boarding school, and the experience changed her life. While she had not had a positive relationship with her teachers at St. Kilian, “the women who taught at the ‘Mount’ were great role models,” she wrote. “Sisters Ruth Steiner, Grace Ellen [Minten] and Trinita [Flood] were, to me, what Dominicans from Adrian were all about.”

Read more about Sister Maureen (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Beck’s Tribute Center, Edmonds, Washington.

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 Maureen'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 Maureen'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.

(1938-2026)

Sister Ann Marie Wood was one of the relatively few women in religious life who was married and raised a family before entering the convent.

Ann Marie was born in New Orleans to Paul and Lucille (Zitzmann) Davidson on January 23, 1938. She was the couple’s only child. When she was two years old, her mother was admitted to a mental hospital. Shortly thereafter, Paul, who had been unable to find work in the private sector, accepted a job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was sent to Europe for the duration of World War II.

Their neighbor in the other half of the duplex where they lived, Florence Dannahy, was a recent widow with two teenage daughters, the oldest of whom was Ann Marie’s godmother. Florence agreed to care for Ann Marie until her father made other arrangements. Those “other arrangements” never exactly happened; Paul provided for his daughter’s education and other expenses and even paid for new housing for the family, but saw very little of his daughter. Florence raised Ann Marie as her own child for seventeen years.

“She loved me unconditionally and instilled her Irish Catholic faith, wit and values into my hungry heart,” Sister Ann Marie wrote in her autobiography.

Ann Marie attended grades K-5 at St. Rita School, grades 6-8 at St. Agnes School, and high school at St. Mary Dominican High School, all in New Orleans. She then attended Loyola University (New Orleans) for a year and Mercy Hospital Nursing School for about two years.

Read more about Sister Ann Marie (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Beck’s Tribute Center, Edmonds, Washington.

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

Memorial Mass Recording

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

Recording of Sister Ann Marie's Memorial Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as."

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

(1933-2026)

Your life and career reflect a commitment to using your education to respond thoughtfully and creatively to the needs of others. We are proud to call you “one of ours”!

This quotation comes from the citation accompanying the Siena Heights University Alumni Association’s honoring of Sister Mary Alan Stuart with the 2007 Sister Ann Joachim Award. The award came her way for her many years of service to the people of rural Kentucky, helping them learn about healthy nutrition.

Rita Jean Stuart, as she was baptized, was born in Chicago on November 27, 1933, to Arthur and Cecilia (Studer) Stuart. She was the couple’s third child, following Alan and David and preceding Ruth, Christine, Paul, and Louise.

Arthur was born in Chesaning, Michigan, while Cecilia came from Fowler, Indiana. Arthur was just two years old when his father disappeared on a trip out West, and when he was three years old, his mother, Anna, brought Arthur and his sister to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Anna found work as a domestic and later opened a boarding house.

Arthur went on to college at the University of Michigan, graduated with a degree in chemical engineering, and went to work for the Ford Motor Co. Later, wanting a career where he could get ahead and better raise a family, he went back to the University of Michigan for a law degree and got a job with a firm in Chicago. As for Cecilia, she attended secretarial school in Kankakee, Illinois, becoming the only one of her siblings to have a post-secondary education, and then worked for the Chicago Evening American Newspaper.

Despite the fact that both Arthur and Cecilia were living and working in Chicago, the couple actually met at a family reunion in Fowler, Indiana. They married in 1929. In 1936, Arthur became the corporate attorney for the Hiram Walker Corporation in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and the family moved to Windsor.

With the outbreak of World War II and the likelihood of American involvement, Arthur decided he wanted the family to live back in the States, and so in the summer of 1940 they moved to Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, and Arthur commuted to work in Canada each day. The Stuarts became part of St. Ambrose Parish, which is how young Rita, a second-grader at the time, met the Adrian Dominican Sisters who taught at the grade and high school.

Read more about Sister Mary Alan (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 Mary Alan'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 Mary Alan'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.