(1933-2024)

Two unrelated coincidences – one rooted in a family’s personal story, the other a case of a priest’s seizing an opportunity when it arose – came together to bring Sister Joan Weitz to the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Joan Marie Weitz was born November 20, 1933, to Leon and Marie (Mathien) Weitz of Lancaster, New York. She was the couple’s second child, coming three years after her brother, Leon, and was born prematurely due to Marie’s declining health.

Early the next year, Marie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she died in October 1936. Her husband and their two small children moved to his parents’ home in nearby Buffalo, where “being the first grandchildren and having our mother die so young, we received a great deal of attention,” Sister Joan wrote in her autobiography. “I was told I was especially spoiled!”

Sister Joan remembered her grandmother Anna as strict but loving and faith-filled as well, and in her autobiography recalled an amusing story: once when it was time for her to go to bed, she declared it was still light outside … and her grandmother’s response was that she would make it dark, as she pulled down the shade.

Sister Joan’s father remarried a year or so after Marie’s death. His new wife, Clinetta, already had a son, and within about five years, two more children, a boy and a girl, were born into the family. By that time, the Weitzes were living in Cheektowaga, New York, where they moved the summer after Joan completed third grade. At the time there was no Catholic parish nearby, so the children were enrolled in public school.

Read more about Sister Joan (PDF)

 

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

 

LEFT: Marie Weitz holds her daughter, Joan, 1934. MIDDLE LEFT: Eighth-grade photo, Cleveland Hill Middle School, Cheektowaga, New York, 1946. MIDDLE RIGHT: At St. Mary School, Iron Mountain, Michigan, 1957. RIGHT: Sister Joan (then Sister Marie Leon) shows off Silver during a home visit.

LEFT: Sister Marie Leon with her father Leon and stepmother Clinetta. RIGHT:  From left, Sisters Joan Weitz and Anneliese Sinnott. 

LEFT: The Weitz siblings, oldest to youngest, left to right: Robert, Carol, Sister Joan, Don, and Leon at the wedding of Carol’s daughter. RIGHT: Gathering during the 1967 Year of Renewal are, from left, Sisters David Mary (Angela) Susalla, Marie Leon (Joan) Weitz, James Claret (Nancy) Fischer, and Mary Alan Stuart.

LEFT: Sister Marie Leon with her class at Mother of Divine Grade School, Buffalo, New York, 1964. RIGHT: Members of the 2001 Golden Jubilee Crowd are: back row, from left, Anne Beauvais, Joan Weitz, Nancy Fischer, Mary Alice Naour, Helen Belsito, Mary Louise Head, Patricia Eileen Consier, Patricia Walsh, and Celeste Mary Bourke; middle row, from left, Sisters Alan Stuart, Jane Robert Stuckel, Thomas Leo Monahan, Helen Laier, Patricia Dolan, Diana Pellegrino, Angela Susalla, Barbara Ann Hehr, and Mary Catherine Nolan; and front row, from left, Sisters Betty Lou Myers, Robert Irene Buchanan, Marilyn Foster, Marion Coppe, June Racicot, Veronica Gonthier, and Patricia Spangler.

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(1930-2024)

Being a Dominican Sister ran in the family for Sister Shirley Boettcher. First, there was Sister Adalbert Wagner, who came to New York from Germany to join the Dominicans at the Second Street convent, later to become the Newburgh Dominicans. Sister Adalbert made profession in 1887, was eventually missioned to Michigan, and became a Grand Rapids Dominican when that group was separated from the New York congregation.

Sister Adalbert’s brother Peter followed his sister to Bay City, Michigan, where he married and raised six children, including Theresa, who at the age of sixteen joined the Grand Rapids congregation and became Sister DeLellis. Two of Shirley’s cousins also entered religious life, including second cousin Mary Louise Hall, who became an Adrian Dominican Sister.

Another of Peter’s children, Edna, went on to marry Edward Boettcher. Edward was born in Bay City but at an early age, after the death of both his father and his only brother, he was placed at the St. Francis Home for Boys in Detroit. He grew up to become an inspector for the city’s gas company, and he and Edna had four daughters: Donna, Phyllis, Shirley (born August 16, 1930), and Elaine.

The family lived on Detroit’s east side in St. Matthew Parish. Shirley’s early education came from the IHM Sisters who staffed the parish school, and by her own admission she disliked school and was a poor student. She was, however, very athletic and played the trumpet.

“The only thing that helped my survival in grade school was daily Mass, ringing the bell for change of classes and blowing my bugle at lunch time to line up for classes,” she wrote in her autobiography.

Read more about Sister Shirley (PDF)

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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(1940-2024)

When asked in her November 2018 “A Sister’s Story” interview how she would like to be remembered, Sister Jean Marie Lehtinen’s answer was simple: she wanted people to think of her as “content and friendly and that I had made a difference in their lives.”

Those who ministered with her and knew her during her years as an Edmonds Dominican Sister and then Adrian Dominican Sister would agree that she achieved that goal.

“She looked for ways to touch lives and to learn what was needed. She was open to new ideas and happy to support others,” said Sister Karen Rossman in her homily at Sister Jean Marie’s memorial Mass. “… Jean Marie was a faithful friend, a dedicated minister, a joyful companion, and a strong Dominican woman. … She was a gift to us and we are grateful.”

Sister Jean Marie was born on September 16, 1940, in Seattle, Washington, and baptized Mary Jane. She was the fourth child of William and Anne (Heider) Lehtinen, coming into the family after Jean Anne, Bill, and Phil and before Sam, Paul, Don, Chris, and Ronnie. Chris and Ronnie were both adopted.

Read more about Sister Jean Marie (PDF)

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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(1935-2024)

My desire to enter grows from the realization that no matter what I find good and true and just in the world, it seems to be only a small part of a greater Goodness, a greater Truth, and a greater Justice. When I tried to explain this feeling to one of the Sisters she told me, “It is God whom you are seeking.”

Mercedes Luisa Campos of Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, wrote these words as part of the letter she sent to Mother Gerald in 1961 seeking entrance to the Congregation with which she was already acquainted through the Sisters who taught at the Colegio Santo Domingo.

Luisa, as she known, was born on February 24, 1935, in Puerto Plata to Francisco Campos Perez, who was a merchant, and Dolores “Lolín” Villalón. She was one of four children born to the couple, along with two more girls – Lourdes and Maria Teresa – and a boy, Francisco.

She attended grade school and high school in Puerto Plata, graduating from Jose Dubeau High School in 1954. While attending the University of Santo Domingo, she studied law and earned a certificate in journalism. She was first introduced to Adrian Dominican Sisters when she joined a Catholic Action group at the university that taught catechism alongside Sisters from the Colegio, and she began taking classes at the Colegio in order to learn English.

She entered the Congregation on September 8, 1961, and spent the next two years in Adrian as a postulant and novice. When she was received as a novice in August 1962, she was given the religious name Sister Marie Lolín after her mother’s nickname.

Read more about Sister Luisa (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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