(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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(1936-2020)

Given that her family belonged to St. Ann’s Parish in West Palm Beach, Florida, she was a student at Rosarian Academy, and she had two cousins who were already Adrian Dominican Sisters (Sisters Rita Gleason and Mary Elizabeth Waldron), it comes as no surprise that when Helen Wilson felt a call to religious life, it was to the Adrian Dominicans.

Helen Margaret was the youngest of four children born to Spencer and Mary (Gleason) Wilson. Spencer and Mary were both natives of upstate New York and married after Spencer returned from service in World War I.

A son and a daughter, Bobby and Mary, were born in New York. After the Wilsons moved to West Palm Beach in the early 1920s, Angela and then Helen, born on March 24, 1936, came into the family as well.

All four of the children were taught by the Adrian Dominican Sisters: Bobby and Mary at St. Ann’s School, and Angela and Helen at Rosarian Academy for all twelve years of their education. “We had wonderful teachers and I loved the Sisters who instilled in us good study habits and the discipline was very tight, yet we knew the Sisters liked us and encouraged us,” Sister Helen wrote in her autobiography. “The Sisters always gave us [a] very good example and humor was mixed with their joy.”

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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(1925-2021)

I began experiencing my happy memories of this witty, with-it, joyful, spirited attitude who often answered you with a humorous response that had nothing to do with what she heard. She had a way of being funny which kept you off your guard. She offered her joyful spirit to anyone who took time to be engaged with her such as she was.

I often wondered what it was like when she taught the younger ones – caring, happy in spirit, aware of each child in his or her own space.

In this remembrance, Sister Joan Schroeder was sharing her memories of Sister Marie Rosanna Flanagan, whose gentle, happy nature was evident even in her later years as memory loss took its toll.

Sister Rosanna was born on July 25, 1925, in Detroit to John and Katherine (Coughlin) Flanagan. John was an Irish immigrant, while Katherine was born in Ontario, Canada, but came from Irish stock herself. According to Sister’s life story, John, whose job for the city was to cut and finish the curbing as Detroit’s neighborhoods expanded and sidewalks were installed, was a quintessential Irish storyteller. “The children of the neighborhood would sit on our porch and front stairs to hear his stories,” she said.

Read more about Sister Marie Rosanna (PDF)

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

 

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