In Memoriam

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(1927-2024)

Eight years ago [Sister] Jodie Screes interviewed Marg for her Sister’s Story. She closed the interview with a question: Marg, suppose there was a tombstone and you could offer a favorite saying or a bit of wisdom, what would you want to say? Marg’s response was, “To whom much is given, much shall be required.”

Margaret Mary Heinz, always known as “Marg,” for whose funeral Sister Mary Jane Lubinski was preaching the homily that included the above quote, lived her life with a sense of gratitude, knowing that despite the hardships she and her family faced over the years, God had blessed them and had always seen them through.

Marg was born on April 20, 1927, in Chicago, to Anthony and Margaret (McBride) Heinz. The couple’s first child, Richard, had been born a year and a half earlier. After Marg came into the family, her parents lost their next child and Margaret was told she would never be able to have more children – but after a difficult fourth pregnancy, she gave birth to a second girl, Rita.

The family originally lived in a small home on Chicago’s South Side in St. Felicitas Parish, and Richard and Marg attended St. Felicitas School. As the Great Depression took hold, “I never experienced want but I learned early on that I couldn’t have everything I wanted,” Sister Marg wrote in her autobiography. “Even as a child I realized things were hard when during the winter we could afford to heat only the downstairs part of the house.”

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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Tagged With: Joan Weitz, Sister Marie Leon / 1890 Views

Sister Shirley Boettcher, OP

(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.