(1944-2021)

Associate Kathleen Unti gave much of her time, love, and energy to people in her family, her community, and the hospices where she volunteered. 

Kathy was born on July 7, 1944, in Detroit, the youngest child of William and Frances (Brinker) McCarty. She joined her sister Patricia and her brother William. Kathy attended St. Matthew School and Dominican High School, where she met the Adrian Dominican Sisters. By the time she was in high school, Pat had entered the Congregation. 

A student at the University of Detroit, Kathy married Walt Unti. They moved to Ann Arbor, where she began a career as a dental hygienist. Walt and Kathy had three children, now married with families of their own: Patricia (Robert) Healy, Michael (Evangeline), and Susan Yingling. Kathy and Walt are blessed with seven grandchildren. 

As their children were growing up, the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Kathy enrolled at Aquinas College. She graduated in 1985 and established a real estate firm there. She led a busy life of family, work, and faith.

Kathy was called to the vocation of hospice volunteer. She volunteered at hospices for the next 35 years: in Sonoma, California, where she also volunteered as a docent and took fifth-graders on hikes in the mountains; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Easton, Maryland. 

Kathy was especially close to her sister, supporting and comforting her during treatments for cancer in 1998. This strengthened the bonds between the sisters.

Called to the Dominican charism, Kathy joined Associate Life on July 7, 2006, mentored by María Romero, OP. She loved being part of this group and faithfully submitted her annals. She shared her compassion through hospice and in any way she was needed. Kathy was a lifelong learner, interested in many things. She gave generously of her time and talent. 

The past few years have been very challenging for Kathy and her family. Her son-in-law Craig Yingling died in 2019. She fought cancer herself while being concerned with the health of her sister Pat, who died in 2021. Even though Kathy and Walt lived in Maryland, her funeral took place at the Blessed Solanus Casey Center in Detroit. May she rest in peace.

View Kathleen's obituary.

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(1929-2021)

Among the many youngsters who experienced World War II in an up close and personal way were the six children of Patrick and Margaret (McKeigue) Nugent, one of whom went on to become our Sister Mary Nugent.

Patrick and Margaret were both Irish immigrants to Chicago in the early 1920s, with Patrick coming from Dublin and Margaret from Galway. They married in Chicago in 1926 and soon had a son, Richard, who died of pneumonia at just six weeks of age. Over time, six girls followed; Mary Therese, the oldest, was born on May 10, 1929.

The family moved to England in 1936 after Mary finished first grade, because Patrick, who worked for Philco Radio, was sent there to learn from the British engineers who were developing the then-new technology of television. Three girls were in the family at the time: Mary, Pat, and Eleanor.

What Patrick and Margaret hadn’t planned on when they and the children set off on their overseas adventure, of course, was World War II. The family moved from England to Ireland to be near their relatives literally just as the war broke out in 1939. The ship they were on arrived in Dublin just as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s announcement that war had been declared on Germany was being broadcast over the ship’s P.A. system.

“I was ten years old,” Sister Mary wrote in her autobiography. “I didn’t realize all the implications of those words, but I did notice that my mother, standing next to me, was crying. I don’t think I had ever seen her cry before.”

Read more about Sister Mary (PDF)

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

 

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(1934-2021)

Anne knew the Word in Scripture and she knew Jesus the Word. In our Gospel from John [14:1-7] we heard Jesus’ tender, reassuring words to the anxious disciples in his farewell message to them: “Do not be troubled, trust in God and in me. I am going to prepare a place for you so that we will be together again. I am the Way – the only way to my Abba God. I am the Truth – a teacher in the spirit of truth. And I am the Life – to know Abba present in me is eternal life.”

Anne followed the Way, seeking truth, and lived life in Jesus through love. As another one of our sisters said of her: “Anne believed that love is necessary for survival – her survival and the lives of the people she touched, many of whom lived in survival mode.”

This passage is from Sister Carleen Maly’s funeral homily for Sister Anne Elizabeth Monahan, who in the course of her seventy-one years as an Adrian Dominican Sister, ministered to countless children and adults as a teacher, principal, and literacy center tutor.

Sister Anne was born on August 23, 1934, in Clinton, Massachusetts, to George and Mary (Langen) Monahan. She was the first of three daughters, followed by Mary and Faye.

When she was eleven years old the family moved to Florida, and it was here that she first came into contact with the Adrian Dominican Sisters; after a year of public school in Stuart, she enrolled at St. Ann School in West Palm Beach for her eighth grade year.

Read more about Sister Anne Elizabeth (PDF)

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

 

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(1935-2021)

The melting pot that was Detroit in the early decades of the 20th Century may have no better examples than Helen Simon and Matthew Mayer. Helen was born in Hattingen, Germany, in 1907, and came with her family to Detroit in the 1920s. Matthew was born in Milltown, New Jersey, in 1908 to Yugoslavian parents who returned to their homeland shortly after his birth, but then emigrated once more to the U.S. after World War I. After living first in Washington State and then in California, the family came to Detroit because there was work there.

Helen and Matthew, a sheet metal worker who eventually owned his own business, met at a dance and married in July 1930. Five years later, on July 17, 1935 – Helen’s birthday – the couple welcomed a daughter, Eleanor Therese. Their son, Matthew, followed two years later.

With the help of friends, the Mayers weathered the Depression, and when Eleanor was four years old the little family was able to move into a home that her father built on Somerset Avenue on Detroit’s east side. Eleanor went to kindergarten at Arthur Elementary School. Since she spoke mostly German at home, school was a tearful experience for several weeks until she got more comfortable with English. But she loved school, and that love for learning continued throughout her early life.

Read more about Sister Helen Therese (pdf)

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

Sister's Prayer Card (PDF)

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