(1929-2021)

In the early part of the 20th Century, Detroit’s east side was not nearly as urban as it would soon come to be, and farmland near Harper Avenue became home to the Sinnamon family: Harry and Irma (DeMaire) Sinnamon and their five children.

Harry was born in Portadown, Ireland, and came to Connecticut at age 21, while Irma was born in Bernem, Belgium, and arrived in Detroit when she was three years old with her mother and siblings, to join her father who was already there. After Harry completed military service in World War I he ended up in Detroit, and he and Irma met on Irma’s parents’ farm on Harper Avenue. Irma’s father later bought some nearby farmland and built a house there, on Elmdale Street, for the young couple when they married.

Theresa, born on September 5, 1929, was the fourth of five children and the only girl. Her brothers were Harry, Lawrence, James and Edward. The children all attended St. David School, where they were taught by Sisters of St. Joseph from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The year Theresa finished eighth grade, her oldest brother, Harry, died in his sleep of a heart issue at age nineteen. Not surprisingly, his death hit the family hard, especially Irma. “My mother found his death very difficult to accept, and one that she never really got over,” Sister Theresa wrote in her autobiography.

Read more about Sister Theresa (PDF)

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

 

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(1942-2021)

She served well wherever and whenever she was asked – and never lost her love of and respect for people.

These words by Sister Nancyann Turner concluded her remembrance of Sister Adrienne Schaffer for the wake service held after Sister Adrienne’s unexpected passing shortly before Thanksgiving 2021.

Sister Adrienne was born in Detroit on August 17, 1942, the middle of three children born to Leo and Hildegarde (Ettinger) Schaffer. “Bookending” her, so to speak, were brothers Keith and Kenneth.

“She loved being the only girl. She received a lot of attention and had no desire to have a sister,” Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, Mission Prioress of the Catherine of Siena Mission Chapter, said in her eulogy for Sister Adrienne. “Another brother would be fine, but she enjoyed her ‘princess’ place in the family.”

The Schaffer family lived in Harper Woods, adjacent to Detroit, where Adrienne attended Our Lady Queen of Peace School and then St. Ambrose High School, graduating in 1960. It was at St. Ambrose that she got to know the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and in the spring of 1960 she wrote to Mother Gerald seeking admission to the Congregation.

Read more about Sister Adrienne (PDF)

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

 

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(1927-2021)

I view my life as a puzzle with almost all of the pieces now in place. The pieces fit, my family and friends, the places I ministered, the Sisters with whom I lived, the students I taught and from whom I learned, the pastors with whom I worked, all the parents and other adults who were part of my life: All in God’s plan.

Sister Noreen Marie George wrote this passage near the end of her autobiography, reflecting on how all of her ministries had turned out to be “just what I needed,” at least once she adjusted to them. “Each influenced my life and helped me grow, to appreciate my blessings, to understand better the meaning of God’s love for me and for all creation, to know the blessings of community,” she wrote. “I am very blessed and so grateful.”

Mary Elizabeth George entered the world on March 6, 1927, in Flint, Michigan. She was the fourth child of Ernest and Margaret (O’Connor) George, and the first girl. The Georges had seven children in all; in addition to Mary Elizabeth, there were John (known as Jack), Eugene, Robert, Donald, Margaret, and Miriam Patricia, who died of pneumonia at just seven months of age. She was named after Sister Miriam Patricia O’Connor, an Adrian Dominican who was a maternal aunt of Mary Elizabeth’s.

Read more about Sister Noreen Marie (PDF) 

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

 

 

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(1920-2021)

Her parents may have named her Mary Margaret, but for most of her 101 years of life almost everyone – relatives, friends, and her Adrian Dominican “family” – knew her as “Sis.”

Sis Beh was born on May 27, 1920, in Birmingham, Michigan, to Joseph and Margaret Mary (Mihm) Beh. She was the third of the Behs’ four children, with two older brothers, Joseph and Robert, and a younger sister, Pauline.

She explained the genesis of her nickname in a St. Catherine letter written to Sister Betty Kubacki on July 17, 1980.

Yes, my name is “Sis,” at least this is one of my names, and the one that goes back almost as far as I go back. My family gave me that when I was very young because my two older brothers (2 and 4 years my senior) could not handle “Mary Margaret.” They called me “Little Sister,” eventually shortening it to “Sis.” When we returned to our baptismal names, it seemed that people just automatically returned to calling me “Sis.” This never pleased my grandmother. She used to always say, “with such a pretty name as Mary Margaret and you let people call you ‘Sis.’”

Religious vocations ran in the family; Bob was a priest for many years before leaving the priesthood, while an aunt, an uncle, and several cousins were also in religious life. Sis’s brother Joe was in the seminary himself for a while. And, she wrote in that St. Catherine letter, her mother had been thinking very seriously about entering the convent when she met her future husband at a party and he asked to call on her. “He claimed he knew a good thing when he saw it. I agree!” Sis wrote.

Read more about Sister Mary Margaret (pdf)

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

 

 

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