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(1936-2025)
Sister Marilyn Francoeur ended her autobiography with this paragraph:
The Land continues to draw me and I find great grace and peace in gardening and being close to the earth. Is this not my Indian heritage, my father’s legacy and longing to know more about this great cosmos that is part of everyone’s heritage? I trust that God will lead me in new pastures for “The Lord is My Shepherd.”
Sister Marilyn’s agrarian roots shaped her life’s story. She was born in Adrian on July 1, 1936, and grew up on her parents’ farm just outside the city.
Her father, Noel, was born in Martinton, Illinois, to a French-Indian family; his mother was one-quarter Potawatomi, giving Sister Marilyn one-sixteenth Citizen Potawatomi Nation blood. Her status as an enrolled member of the tribe was something of which she was very proud.
Noel came to Adrian when his parents, tired of renting farmland, bought a farm on Townline Highway in Adrian using the proceeds of his mother’s sale of the land in Oklahoma that she had been allotted as a Native American. He met his future wife, Ruth McKee, when he was with some baseball friends (he had his own semi-pro team, the Francoeur Eagles) who met up with their girlfriends at the Adrian movie theater where they worked – and where Ruth also worked.
After their 1935 marriage, Noel and Ruth lived in Adrian for a time before moving to their own 149-acre farm on Country Club Road. It was a difficult transition for a “city girl” who had never pumped her own water or used an outhouse, and to top things off, Ruth remembered the summer of 1936, when Marilyn was born, as the hottest on record.
The couple had five children; after Marilyn came Larry, Herline, Douglas, and John. All five of the children went to a one-room schoolhouse, and “I loved my time in the country school,” Sister Marilyn wrote, recalling field trips to the woods where the children identified flowers and birds and collected gunnysacks full of milkweed pods for the war effort (the pods were used as the stuffing for life jackets); being the only girl on the fifth-grade baseball team; and the one-room schoolhouse method of education, where children learned by hearing the lessons repeated over and over and by helping each other.
Read more about Sister Marilyn (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)
Recording of Sister Marilyn'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 Marilyn'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.
(1938-2025)
… Mary’s love of the color pink was legendary. She often bought pink things and wore them just for the joy of it. I’m wearing a pink sweater in honor of Mary and my folder is hot pink. And she delighted in playing cards! She found it so much fun that she could have played all night!
In fact, as Sister Carol Johannes noted later on in her funeral homily for Sister Mary Plunkett, from which the above quote comes, Sister Mary was even preparing to head to another Sister’s room for a game of UNO when she died, suddenly and quietly, as the aides were getting her into her wheelchair.
“As we heard last night, (Mary) often found Thomas Merton’s quote a healing remedy when she was anxious: ‘God does not ask us not to feel anxious, but to trust God no matter how we feel,’” Sister Carol added. “This is why Mary’s death bears such powerful witness to the gentle sensitivity of God. … God gave her absolutely no chance to be frightened.”
Mary Ann Plunkett was born on June 12, 1938, in Detroit, to John and Hazel (Cutler) Plunkett. She was the first of the couple’s two children, with Jane Elizabeth following almost exactly a year later.
Read more about Sister Mary (PDF)
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 Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1937-2025)
The worship aid cover for Sister Kathleen Walli’s funeral Mass featured a portion of one of the Book of Proverbs’ best-known passages: the description of the “Valiant Woman.”
A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing. She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking.
The more complete passage found in Proverbs 31 was chosen as the first reading for the Mass, and Sister Maria Goretti Browne, who preached the homily, noted how well it fit Sister Kathleen:
Kathleen was a home economics teacher and did that not come through loud and clear as you listened to the first reading? “She is skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking … she is quick to assist anyone in need … reaches out to help the poor … she makes her own clothing and dresses in colorful linens and silks … her clothes are well-made and elegant and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.” Do those words not describe Kathleen? Skill in home economics undoubtedly came in handy in the large Walli family. She was the fifth of fourteen children born to Henry and Marian (Bomberry) Walli, and the first daughter; preceding her were Richard, Charles, Henry, and Larry, with Yvonne, Dennis, Douglas, Sheila, Lance, Maribeth, Michael, Suzanne, and Joy following.
Read more about Sister Kathleen (PDF)
Recording of Sister Kathleen's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Kathleen's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Rest in the peace of Christ, dearest Sister Agnes Francis. You were kind, beautiful, faith-filled and the gold standard for teachers. I was a student at Presentation of Our Lady [in Detroit] in the graduating class of 1965. You were instrumental in my faith formation as well as a masterful teacher who made it a pleasure to be in the classroom. I am a life-long practicing Catholic because of you and all the wonderful and selfless Dominican Sisters that blessed my life. Thank you, one and all.
Rest in the peace of Christ, dearest Sister Agnes Francis. You were kind, beautiful, faith-filled and the gold standard for teachers.
I was a student at Presentation of Our Lady [in Detroit] in the graduating class of 1965. You were instrumental in my faith formation as well as a masterful teacher who made it a pleasure to be in the classroom.
I am a life-long practicing Catholic because of you and all the wonderful and selfless Dominican Sisters that blessed my life. Thank you, one and all.
Christine Katros Stander wrote this remembrance in honor of Sister Jo Ann Lucas, whose long life of service included teaching, school and parish administration, faith formation ministry, and much more.
Sister Jo Ann’s role as a mentor to Christine and countless others over the years was a deliberate mirroring of the important roles mentors had played in her own life. Her autobiography – which she whimsically titled “Mentors and More, Mentors Galore” – lists some of the many family members, friends, superiors and principals, pastors, and friends who had filled that role for her, and “being graced with such benevolent mentors, I pray to be a mentor for others,” she wrote.
Her first mentors were her parents, Frank and Agnes (Rohde) Lucas, to whom she was born in Chicago on August 20, 1937. She was the oldest of three, followed by brothers Frank and David.
Read more about Sister Jo Ann (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221.
Recording of Sister Jo Ann's Memorial Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Jo Ann's Ritual of Remembrance - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as."
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