In Memoriam

We Remember

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Sister Esther Ortega, OP (Consolata Marie)

(1934-2021)

I heard the word TRUTH. Truth has always touched my soul and it was then that I realized I would be an Adrian Dominican Sister.

This passage from Sister Esther Ortega’s autobiography describes the moment, while on a summer retreat, that she knew she had been called to religious life.

Born in Douglas, Arizona, on March 24, 1934, to Jose and Maria (Medrano) Ortega, Sister Esther was part of a large family of seven children: Peter, Irene, Connie, George, Edward, herself, and Raul. Jose was a carpenter who owned his own business, while Maria raised chickens (studying farm journals so she could raise the best birds) for sale and took in laundry as well.

Sister Esther’s multicultural heritage included great-grandparents who were Belgian and Aztec and a grandmother from Spain. Both her parents were born in Mexico; her paternal grandparents fled to the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution, while her grandparents on her mother’s side came to the U.S. when Maria was eight years old. The families both settled in El Paso, Texas, and eventually Jose and Maria met and married.

Homily from Monsignor Arturo Bañuelas,
recorded for Sister Esther's Funeral

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Sister Jeannine Therese McGorray, OP

(1934-2021)

Cheektowaga, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, was the birthplace of Annette Catherine McGorray, the future Sister Jeannine Therese.

Annette was the second of four children born to Vincent and Loretta (Kunzelman) McGorray, with an older brother, Kenny, and two younger siblings, Gladys and Frankie. The family lived in Mother of Divine Grace Parish before the church buildings themselves were even constructed; originally, Mass was celebrated in a commercial building that was also the site of other denominations’ services.

Adrian Dominican Sisters came to staff the parish school once it opened in 1946, and it was in this way that Annette came to know the Sisters, although she herself never attended there.

The family lived near the church in a row of homes dubbed “the projects.” Behind their house, as it so happened, was an outdoor movie theater where patrons sat on blankets on the ground, rather than in their cars, to watch the movies, and little Annette quickly discovered that if she went over there the morning after a show she could find plenty of coins on the ground that had been dropped by people as they sat. She could also see the films from her room, and when her older brother got a job at the theater he hooked up a speaker nearby so she could listen to the sound.

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

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Tagged With: Annette McGorray, Jeannine Therese McGorray / 2543 Views

Sister Mary Elizabeth Scheibel, OP (Therese Johanna)

(1925-2021)

And now Adrian is my home, a very happy one I might add. I often wonder if it had something to do with the evening I met Mother Gerald who asked me, “And when are you coming to Adrian?”

So Sister Mary Scheibel ended her autobiography, in which she explained how an unexpected encounter with Mother Gerald Barry, while out for a walk one spring evening in Chicago, changed her life.

Mary Elizabeth Scheibel was born on March 8, 1925, in Chicago to John and Harriet (Nyren) Scheibel. She was the middle of three children born to the couple, in between June and Patricia.

The family had moved from St. Laurence Parish into St. Philip Neri Parish – in fact, the church was “practically in our front yard,” she wrote – by the time Mary was ready to start school. So it was that she attended first St. Philip Neri School and then Aquinas Dominican High School, educated the whole way by the Adrian Dominican Sisters.