(1933-2022)

Sister Ann’s modesty would not want me to spend much time praising her virtues. All I think she would want is to be remembered as a good teacher who had a positive influence on young children. She seemed to have a special way with kids and her eyes would always light up when relating some classroom experience. I think this world needs more Sister Anns. Her compassion, understanding, generosity and love have benefitted us all.

This passage from Ray Jacobsen’s remembrance of his cousin, Sister Ann Kelly, was typical of the way other family and friends remembered her after her death: kind, compassionate, caring, and loving others unconditionally.

These virtues grew within Sister Ann even in the face of a painful childhood. Anna Mae Kelly was born in Chicago on February 11, 1933, to John and Anne (Galvin) Kelly. When she was just five days old her mother died of uremic poisoning contracted in childbirth. It seems from Sister’s Ann’s records that her life was in question as well, for she was baptized the day of her birth by a registered nurse at the hospital. Then, when she was four years old, her father was hit by a car and killed as he crossed the street on his way to work in the Chicago stockyards.

Read more about Sister Ann (PDF)

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

 

 

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(1933-2022)

To me, she possessed the best qualities of being an Adrian Dominican Sister. She was hard working, kind, no nonsense, self-deprecating, clear thinking and down to earth. She was someone you could always count on, a steady mind and heart.

Kathy Almany, an Adrian Dominican Associate and the chair of the Camilla Madden Charitable Trust (CMCT), in this remembrance was describing Sister Loretta May, who had spent many years as a trustee of the fund and who at the time of her death held the title of trustee emerita.

In her more than seventy years as an Adrian Dominican Sister, Sister Loretta served as a teacher, principal, associate school superintendent, founder of two grade-school programs, Treasurer of the Congregation, and CMCT trustee – and none of that might have happened if St. Mary Academy, the school administered by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Monroe, Michigan, had not had a full enrollment when she was ready for high school.

Read more about Sister Loretta (PDF)

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

 

 

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(1933-2021)

“I was called [my parents’] ‘prosperity’ baby born in the good times after the Great Depression.”

Anne Elizabeth Beauvais was the sixth child of eight in the Beauvais family, and the youngest girl. She was born August 13, 1933, in Libertyville, Illinois, to Erneste and Marian (Hallinan) Beauvais, natives of Chicago’s North Side. 

Marian’s mother died in childbirth and she was adopted by a strongly Catholic family, while Erneste was similarly raised in a solidly Catholic environment, and both passed their love of their faith on to their children: Mary, Elizabeth, Ernie, Tom, Cecile, David, Paul, and of course Anne.

“I had a wonderful and joy-filled childhood with my three fun-loving sisters and four brothers,” Sister Anne wrote in her autobiography. “Our parents believed in letting children be who they are, with of course good manners and discipline.”

All the children attended St. Joseph School, where they were taught by the Sisters of Mercy “whom I loved,” Sister Anne wrote. “In the seventh grade I knew I wanted to be a sister.”

Read more about Sister Anne (PDF)

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

 

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(1928-2021)

Whatever the future holds for me, one thing is certain: God will be present and will not let me down. I trust He will allow me to use whatever talents He has placed in me to be of service in His work and to bring happiness to myself.

Sister Ann Patrice Remkus wrote this passage to conclude the 1986 edition of her life story. Both it and a later version are a thoughtful, honest look back at what Sister Mary Sue Kennedy described in her homily for Sister’s Memorial Mass as “a life well lived, with its ups and downs and its joys and pains.”

Lucille Judith Remkus was born on July 2, 1928, in Rockford, Illinois, to Frank and Petronella (Stansel) Remkus. In one of her St. Catherine letters to Sister Marcella Gardner, she mused about the date of her birth: “An early firecracker? Hardly, as this letter will attest to; I’ve not been early for much of anything in my life, unfortunately.”

Frank and Pat, as Sister Ann Patrice’s mother was called (and from which name the second part of Sister’s religious name was derived), both came to the U.S. from Lithuania. Frank left his homeland in 1910 at the age of about 21, fleeing under cover of darkness to avoid being conscripted into the Russian army. He walked to the Netherlands and from there sailed to New York. Pat came to the U.S. in 1909, at about age 22, after having had a difficult childhood. Sister wrote in her life story that Pat’s mother had died when Pat was just 18 months old, and because Pat’s stepmother did not accept her and her sister, she had left home at age nine to work on a farm.

Read more about Sister Ann Patrice (PDF)

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

 

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