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(1939-2021)
Sister Mary Kay Moran, formerly known as Sister William Mary, died on Monday, April 12, 2021, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian. She was 81 years of age and in her 61st year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Mary Kay was born in Toledo, Ohio, to William and Mary (Heitkamp) Moran. She graduated from Our Lady of Mercy High School in Detroit and received a Bachelor of Science Education degree in History from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian; a master’s degree in mathematics education from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti; and a master’s degree in religious education from Loyola University in Chicago.
Sister Mary Kay spent 47 years ministering in elementary and religious education in Hometown, Oak Park, Chicago, and Joliet, Illinois; San Francisco and Hayward, California; Carlsbad and Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ann Arbor, Adrian, and Detroit, Michigan; West Palm Beach and Indiantown, Florida; Globe and Tucson, Arizona; and Ketchikan, Alaska. She taught at two Congregation institutions, Dominican High School and Academy in Detroit for two years and Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach for one year. During her time in Alaska, she also served as a pastoral minister at the Holy Family Mission of Metlakatla and at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in St. Petersburg.
Sister Mary Kay became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 2014. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Barbara Moran. She is survived by her brother, Thomas Moran of Livonia, Michigan; loving nieces and nephews; and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Due to COVID-19 mitigation protocols, the Dominican Life Center is closed until further notice to all guests or visitors. All are welcome to participate in Sister’s wake and funeral via live stream.
The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 15, 2021. 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, Michigan, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.
Sister's Prayer Card (PDF)
Worship Aid (PDF)
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(1929-2021)
Sister Virginia Pearson, formerly known as Sister Mary Jordan, died on Sunday, March 28, 2021, at Saint Joseph Residence in Seattle, Washington. She was 91 years of age and in the 72nd year of her religious profession: 54 years in the Dominican Sisters of Edmonds (Washington) and in her 18th year in the Adrian Dominican Congregation after the Adrian and Edmonds congregations merged in 2003.
Sister Virginia was born in Fairbanks, in the Territory of Alaska, to Albert and Clara (Haag) Pearson. She graduated from Holy Angels Academy in Seattle, Washington, and received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Seattle University and a Master of Hospital Administration degree from St. Louis University.
Sister ministered in nursing for nine years at St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington, including three years as director of nursing. She served 15 years as a hospital administrator at St. Helen Hospital in Chehalis, Washington, and ministered for a year as the coordinator for an alcohol research project in Barrow, Alaska. For six years she served as assistant administrator and director of nursing at Ketchikan General Hospital in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Sister Virginia was elected for a four-year term on the executive team of the Dominican Sisters of Edmonds as the coordinator of community life. She served one year as a receptionist for the Providence Medical Clinic in Seattle, Washington, followed by 12 years as the retirement coordinator and then as a volunteer nurse for the Assumption Convent in Seattle. Sister Virginia was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, A. Theodore and John. She is survived by loving nieces and nephews and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, April 9, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. PDT at Assumption Parish in Seattle, with interment immediately following at Calvary Cemetery in Seattle.
Due to COVID-19 protocols, there will be no Vigil Service. A maximum of 100 masked people may participate in the Funeral Mass. There will be no social gathering.
In addition, a Memorial Mass will be celebrated in St. Catherine Chapel in Adrian at 10:30 a.m. EDT Friday, April 9, 2021. All are welcome to participate in Sister’s Memorial Mass via live stream.
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Harvey Funeral Home of Seattle, Washington.
(1936-2021)
When Sister Mary Irene Walker and her longtime friend Sister Rosaire McAuliffe moved to the Dominican Life Center, one of the earliest campus projects Sister Mary Irene undertook was to plant the dahlia tubers she had brought with her.
Her love for the bright flowers which came to be so identified with her dated back many years to the time she went to the Washington State Fair. There, in the horticulture building, she was astounded at the rows upon rows of them on display there. Having never seen dahlias before, she had to ask what they were.
“That was it. I was hooked that very moment,” she said in her January 2016 “A Sister’s Story” video. And so, from that time on, every time she left one home to move to another, she brought dahlia tubers with her to every new residence including her last one, the Dominican Life Center.
Sister Mary Irene was born Janet Murray Walker on October 30, 1936, in Seattle to Glen and Irene (Spanbauer) Walker. Glen was a Washington State native, while Irene grew up in Schenectady, New York. The two met in Schenectady, which was the home of General Electric, due to a happy coincidence: Glen, an electrical engineer, would come to town for meetings during which the local college that Irene attended would hold dances for the students and the young engineers – and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Read more about Sister Mary Irene (pdf)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.
(1930-2021)
On April 10, 1930, a young Chicago couple, Anthony and Frances (Liana) DeCanio, welcomed their first-born child, Therese Genevieve, into the world.
At the time, the little family lived on the second floor of an apartment building owned by three unmarried Irish sisters. These early days of the Depression were difficult, for Anthony – whose occupation is listed as “printer” in later Congregational records – was unemployed at the time of Therese’s birth. But the family’s landladies told him to not worry about the rent until he got a job. “My mother and father often spoke of their kindness,” Sister Therese wrote in her autobiography. “… They were a great gift in my young life as they spent much time reading to me, making pancakes for my breakfast and simply loving me.”
In the years following Therese’s birth, two more children were born, Joseph in 1933 and Loretta in 1938. Therese’s early school years were spent in public school, including Fort Dearborn School when the family moved into a home in St. Kilian Parish the summer before she entered fifth grade.
That move proved pivotal, for she attended CCD classes at St. Kilian. It was her introduction to the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and she went on to attend St. Kilian School for sixth grade and then Aquinas Dominican High School. Her parents preferred that she attend high school closer to home, but to her the 45-minute trip to Aquinas was well worth it because she was drawn to the Sisters’ joyful and caring presence.
Read more about Sister Therese (pdf)
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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