(1933-2019)

Patrick Joseph Morley and Mary Catherine Finnegan shared a common heritage as immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland, when they met and fell in love in their adopted hometown of Chicago. Their marriage in 1926 would lead to four children: Frank, John, Eileen, and Rita Jean, who would become Sister Sean Morley.

Rita Jean, the youngest of the Morley siblings, was born May 25, 1933. Patrick worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and Mary Catherine oversaw home and family until tragedy struck: Patrick died when Rita Jean was just ten years old, and Mary Catherine provided for herself and her children by going to work as a clerk at the Adler Planetarium.

Still, “my mother continued the spirit of our home with the importance of God in our life, and so our home was filled with laughter and we were very happy,” Sister Sean said in her autobiography. She remained very close with her mother until Mary Catherine died, like her husband at a relatively young age, in 1954.

The family lived in St. Laurence Parish and the children attended the parish school. Rita Jean went on to Loretto Academy for two years and then to Aquinas High School, where she was educated by Adrian Dominicans. Her sister, Eileen, fifteen months her senior, wanted to join the Congregation directly after eighth grade; their mother refused permission at that time but Eileen did enter after her second year of high school, becoming Sister Patrick Mary.

Read more about Sister Sean (pdf) 

(1929-2019)

When Sister Kay Wejrowski first entered the Everett (later Edmonds) Dominican convent, her father gave the whole idea six months because there were so many other things she had said she wanted to do in her life, including becoming a pilot and having horses and dogs.

But “when the six months passed and she was still there … he was very happy and later very proud when she made final profession,” Sister Kay wrote in her autobiography. In fact, she added, both her parents went on to become Dominican tertiaries, and when her father died he was buried in the Dominican habit.

Katherine Nellie Wejrowski was born October 5, 1929, in Bremerton, Washington, to Joseph and Florence (Roberts) Wejrowski. As Florence was recuperating from the birth, her maternal grandmother named the baby after herself and then – “feeling slightly guilty,” as Sister Kay put it – included the paternal grandmother’s name too.

Read more about Sister Kay (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

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(1926-2019)

In 1958, the Adrian Dominican Sisters missioned in Roy, New Mexico, had a rather unlikely prospective postulant come their way: Maria Carmen Gonzales, who at the age of thirty-two was considerably older than most who have entered the Congregation.

Maria Carmen was born on July 16, 1926, in Albert, New Mexico, to Desiderio and Vicenta (Montaño) Gonzales. When she was about six months old, however, her mother became quite ill, and so the little girl was raised by an aunt and uncle whom she called her mother and father. She did not even know until it was time to enroll in school that her aunt and uncle were not actually her parents.

She attended a one-room schoolhouse for grades one through eight and then went to Mosquero High School, from which she graduated in 1945. Her uncle died around that time, and as the oldest of nine children – eight girls and a boy – she took on the responsibility of helping support the family. She worked in a number of jobs, including a grocery store, a cleaner, a laundry, and the local post office. According to her autobiography, she actually dreamed of joining the Air Force, but “I was too short and didn’t weigh enough.”

Read more about Sister Marie Carmen (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

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(1929-2019)

A Korea under Japanese occupation was the setting in which Myung Soon (Monica) Kim was born to Ik Ro and Soon Ock (Lawrence and Monica) Kim.

Sister Monica, the third child of four, was born on May 13, 1929, in Yungyou, located in present-day North Korea. Life during the occupation, which lasted from 1910 to 1945, was difficult; Sister Monica wrote in her autobiography that the Japanese forced Koreans to adopt Japanese surnames and, during World War II, took everything from church bells to people’s brass rice and soup bowls and silver utensils in order to make munitions.

After the war ended, freedom was short-lived as in 1948 the country was divided into North and South Korea. The Kims were very unhappy living under Communist rule, and Lawrence gave Monica permission to leave for South Korea when her cousins were ready to go. The entire family was eventually able to escape to the South and settled in Seoul, where Sister Monica enrolled in night classes at Soo-do Junior College.

Read more about Sister Monica (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

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