In Memoriam

We Remember

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(1929-2023)

Helen Magdeline Hankerd, born in Chelsea, Michigan, on August 26, 1929, was the oldest of Oleta (Hutzel) and Emmett Hankerd’s seven children. She was followed by, in order, Therese, Mary, Eileen, Paul (known as Bud), Rose Ann, and Jane Cecile.

Helen remembered her childhood as a happy one, and her family was quite close-knit and remained so their entire lives. Sadly, Oleta died in March 1942 when her youngest was born, and Jane Cecile herself died when she was just two years old. Emmett, who owned the Hankerd Pure Oil service station in Chelsea, was determined to keep the family together, even when he had to go to court to ensure he maintained custody of his children. He remained single for two decades until marrying his second wife, Beatrice Doyle, in 1963. Beatrice had been widowed a few years earlier.

Along with her siblings, Helen attended St. Mary School in Chelsea, which is where she first met the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Her high school years were spent at Chelsea High School, across the street from the family home, and after graduation in 1947 she went to work in a local grocery store.

But a long-held call to religious life won out soon enough, even over the scholarship she had been offered by the University of Michigan. In August 1947 she sent a letter to Mother Gerald seeking entrance to the Congregation. “For a long time I have cherished the hope of becoming a Dominican Sister, and now I feel that I am free to fulfill that desire,” she wrote. She was about to turn eighteen, she added, and her two next oldest sisters would both be in high school and able to carry on the work at home.

Read more about Sister Teresa (PDF)

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

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Sister Helen McAllister, OP (Denis Margaret)

(1939-2022)

In her eulogy for Sister Helen McAllister, Sister Judy Friedel, Chapter Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, described Sister Helen this way:

Helen was a people-person, a devoted family member, a dedicated teacher and co-worker, a committed family member, friend to many. The four pillars of Dominican life were foundational to her growth as a person. Her life was lived fully, remaining close to family and friends, with a very tender heart for God’s little ones. She loved people, parties, travel.

Helen Diana McAllister was born on March 11, 1939, at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois. She was the first child born to Thomas McAllister, who worked as a clerk for the Chicago Stock Exchange, and his wife, Margaret Helen (Paschke).

The family lived in Little Flower Parish, on Chicago’s South Side, until 1941, not long after another daughter, Judy, was born. They then moved to an apartment on South Yale, across the street from St. Carthage Church and School. In time, three more children – Rosemary, Dennis, and Susan – entered the family.

Helen attended Yale Public School for kindergarten and half of first grade and then was enrolled at St. Carthage School. It was here that she first met the Adrian Dominican Sisters, initially in the person of Sister Catherine Siena Fisher, her first-grade teacher. “She was very strict; in fact, I think I was a bit afraid of her,” Sister Helen said in her life story as she recounted the time she got in trouble for talking with her best friend and did not tell her mother about it … only to have both her parents find out from Sister Catherine Siena that same day at an open house.

Read more about Sister Helen (PDF)

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

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Sister Mary Louise Gass, OP (Barbara Francis)

(1930-2022)

As I look back, I hear my mother’s quote: “There are many things I can’t do anymore, but I never regret that; I just look back and thank God that I had them and enjoyed them when I did.” My prayer is often a prayer of thanksgiving for all the gifts I have experienced during my life.

These words come near the end of an addition to her life story that Sister Mary Louise Gass wrote, dated “2-22-22, 72nd anniversary of my entrance” into the Congregation.

Mary Louise was born on June 20, 1930, to Gerald and Cecelia (Sack) Gass. She was the couple’s youngest child, following Dolores, seven years older; Gerald Jr., five years older; and Barbara, three years older.

Gerald and Cecelia met in Adrian, where both worked for the Adrian Fence Company although they did not actually meet at work; they met at a Knights of Columbus convention held at St. Joseph Parish. Some of the parish’s young women who were there to serve meals took pictures of the young men attending, and Cecelia took Gerald’s picture and he gave her his address so he could get a print.

The couple married in Adrian in 1922 and settled in Wyandotte, Michigan, in a home Gerald built next to his mother’s dry goods store. The store later became a dry cleaner which Gerald and a partner operated, and Mary Louise, a self-described tomboy who liked working in her father’s shop more than she liked doing housework, often waited on customers, sorted clothes, and even did some bookkeeping.

Growing up during the Depression years meant hand-me-down clothes and “enough to eat but nothing to waste,” Sister Mary Louise wrote. It was a loving family; Gerald and Cecelia always made time to attend their children’s various plays, recitals, and sporting events, and Dolores, who became a nurse, bought Mary Louise a lavender sweater out of her first paycheck “just because she wanted to.” Still, “law and order” was the rule, especially around the home, school, and church; Sister Mary Louise wrote that because she had spent her early years obeying, she later found the strictness of the postulate and novitiate somewhat easy.

All four of the Gass children attended St. Joseph School in Wyandotte, which was staffed by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. It was here that she discovered her love for mathematics thanks to Sister Michael Ann Glombowski; in her life story, she wrote about the pivotal moment, which came in sixth or seventh grade when the class was asked to solve “3/4 times 12” and she discovered that when a number is multiplied by less than one the answer is smaller than the original number.

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

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Cemetery of the Adrian Dominican Sisters

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.