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(1936-2025)
Jeanne Marie Stickling came into the world on December 5, 1936, on the family farm near Itasca, Illinois. She was the youngest child of Herman Leo and Louise (Lowe) Stickling, joining thirteen-year-old Betty, ten-year-old Leo, and 18-month-old Maryann.
The family moved twice during Jeanne’s childhood, first to a farm near Elgin, Illinois, when she was three years old, and then into Elgin itself, where her father worked in a factory, when she was in fifth grade. In Elgin, she and Maryann attended St. Mary School, and it was here that she first met the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
That connection to the Congregation continued at St. Edward High School, also in Elgin. “I was drawn to the happiness and kindness of the Sisters,” Sister Jeanne wrote in her autobiography, and in her senior year she decided to enter. Her family supported her choice, and in June 1954, not long after she graduated from high school, her parents and both sisters drove her to Adrian to become a postulant.
When the next school year began, she was sent to St. Gabriel School in Detroit to teach third grade for a short time, returning to Adrian in December to begin her canonical novitiate year. She received the religious name Sister Louis Anthony at her reception into the novitiate.
After making profession on New Year’s Eve 1955, she and a number of her temporary-professed compatriots remained in Adrian for study at Siena Heights College (University). Her first teaching assignment, in August 1956, was to St. Bridget School in Detroit, but after three weeks there, she was switched to St. James School in Miami, Florida, so that another Sister could be nearer to her ill mother in Detroit.
Read more about Sister Jeanne (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)
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 Jeanne'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 Jeanne'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.
(1937-2025)
Four years after Leo John Kehn and his wife, Mabel Frances King, were married in Toledo, Ohio, the first of their two children entered the world, a daughter they named Barbara Lou.
Barbara was born on February 21, 1937, in Toledo, and was baptized three weeks later at Gesu Church, where her parents were members at the time. The Kehns’ second child, Judith Ann, arrived fourteen months after her sister.
Leo grew up in Toledo and worked on the railroad for a while before becoming a tool and die maker at City Auto Stamping, where he worked for thirty-four years. Mabel was born in nearby Perrysburg, came to Toledo to attend high school at Notre Dame Academy, and worked as a secretary at Auburn Motors until she and Leo married.
Both Kehn children attended Blessed Sacrament School and then Notre Dame Academy for high school. In Sister Joan Leo’s autobiography, she wrote at length about her very devout family home, where prayer was a daily practice. When the children got home from school each day, they would find their mother in her rocking chair saying the rosary, which became a family rosary and, later on, a weekly “Block Rosary” because other families in the neighborhood gathered in the Kehn home to pray.
It was “a very nurturing and happy home,” Sister Joan Leo wrote. Her parents were always interested in what had happened at school each day, and Mabel became a Brownie leader when her daughters got into Scouting.
Read more about Sister Joan Leo (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan Leo'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 Joan Leo's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1930-2025)
Sister Alice Riegel, formerly known as Sister Mary Carol, died on Monday, September 22, 2025, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 95 years of age and in the 76th year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Alice was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, to Alden and Laura (Ouellette) Riegel. She graduated from Visitation High School in Detroit and received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian; a licentiate degree in Spanish from the University of Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and a master’s degree in education from Siena Heights College (University).
Sister ministered 14 years in elementary education in Santurce, Puerto Rico and West Palm Beach, Florida, and at Dominican High School in Detroit, a legacy institution of the Congregation. In all, she was at Dominican High School for 26 years over the course of her ministry, including seven years as a guidance counselor and 15 years as counselor/guidance director. She was also a guidance counselor for four years at Hoban Dominican High School in Cleveland, Ohio, also a legacy institution of the Congregation. Sister became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 2022.
Sister Alice was preceded in death by her parents; a brother, Rev. William Riegel, CSB; and a sister, Carol Wood. She is survived by her sister, Mary Lou Zarem; other loving family members; and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Visitation will be held from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 29, 2025, in the gathering space of St. Catherine Chapel. The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 29, 2025, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. Prayers of Committal will be held in the Congregation Cemetery.
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)
MIDDLE LEFT: Alice on the day of her First Holy Communion in the morning and Confirmation in the afternoon at St. Brigid Church, Detroit. MIDDLE RIGHT: Graduation photo, Visitation High School, Detroit, 1948. RIGHT: Entrance Day, June 1948.
MIDDLE: Members of the Riegel family are, from left, Alden William (father), Laura (mother), Carol Anne, Sister Alice, Mary Lou, and Father William. RIGHT: Sister Alice Riegel, left, with Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress.
LEFT: Members of the 1967-1971 community at Hoban Dominican High School, Cleveland, Ohio, are, from left: Sisters Judith Girard (Carleen Maly), Joseph Loretta (Elaine Lederer), Ann Pauline (Mary Margaret Beh), Mary Jeanette Cerny, Mary Carol (Alice Riegel), and Charles Joseph (Joan Zinn). RIGHT: Sister Alice Riegel, left, with Sister Jean Keeley.
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.
(1945-2025)
Sister Mary Margaret “Peggy” Fornicola, formerly known as Sister Joseph Carolyn, died on Friday, August 22, 2025, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 79 years of age and in the 63rd year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Peggy was born in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, to Joseph and Bernadette (Juers) Fornicola. She graduated from St. Joseph Academy in Adrian and obtained a bachelor’s degree in history from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian.
Sister Peggy ministered for 50 years in education in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and Iron Mountain and Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. This includes 28 years at Dickinson Area Catholic in Iron Mountain, four of those years as elementary/junior high administrator. She became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 2025.
Sister Peggy was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Phyllis Byrd. She is survived by her sister Karen Fornicola, her brother Charles Fornicola, other loving family members, and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Visitation will be held from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, in the gathering space of St. Catherine Chapel. The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 2, 2025, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, September 3, 2025. Prayers of Committal will be held in the Congregation Cemetery.
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)
LEFT: Peggy poses on her First Communion day with her brother Charles and sisters Karen and Phyllis. RIGHT: Peggy, as a Postulant, with her Aunt Mell, 1961.
LEFT: Sister Peggy teaches her class at St. Mary School, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, 1996-2013. RIGHT: Making up the Offertory Procession for Sister Peggy’s Silver Jubilee Mass in Iron Mountain, Michigan, are, front, from left, her nephew Richard and her brother Charles, and in back, from left, Karen, Sister Peggy’s sister, and Sister Peggy.
LEFT: Sister Joseph Carolyn on the day of her First Profession with her parents, Joseph and Bernadette Fornicola, 1961. RIGHT: Members of the 2011 Golden Jubilarian June-December Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Kathleen Morrissey, Gloria Korhonen, Rosemary Abramovich, Virginia Corley, Mary Jean Williams, Tarianne DeYonker, Carol Ann Gross, and Attracta Kelly (Prioress); and front row, from left, Sisters Mary Karen Lietz, Mary Jane Clark, Michele Kopp, Lois Paha, Mary Eileen Sullivan, Mary Margaret Fornicola, Carol Ann Dulka, and Grace Dennis.
Our Adrian Dominican cemetery with its circular headstones is a beautiful place of rest for women who gave their lives in service to God — and a peaceful place for contemplation and remembrance.
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