(1942-2020)

Sister Pauline Quinn, formerly known as Kathleen (Kathy), died on Friday, March 13, 2020, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 77 years of age. Sister Pauline, a privately vowed Dominican, made her final profession of vows to Bishop Raúl Vera López, OP, in 1996.

Sister Pauline was born December 10, 1942, in Hollywood, California, to Joseph and Rosemary (Hodges) Quinn. As a young woman, Sister Pauline experienced much trauma and homelessness. Her discovery of the unconditional love of a dog companion provided her a sense of safety, self-confidence, and belonging. For Sister Pauline, dog was God spelled backward. 

In 1981, she initiated a dog-training program in prisons, creating the Prison Pet Partnership in the Washington State Corrections Center for Women. In the early 1980s, Sister ministered in Italy, where she helped refugees at a Salvation Army house in Rome. Sister continued her Prison Pet Partnership mission by giving talks around the world. 

In 1985, she founded Pathways to Hope and later Bridges and Pathways of Courage, which encompasses the many projects with which Sister was involved. Sister Pauline’s other ministries have included volunteering with the Comboni Refugee Center in Rome, where she arranged medical care and transportation for the victims of the Bosnian and Gulf wars, as well as assisting refugees from Angola, Ethiopia, and Somalia. She traveled to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and undertook many other global missions of mercy. 

Sister Pauline became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 2018. She was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her daughter, Bernadette Dimitriadis, and her brother, Robert, as well as loving nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Welcome of Sister Pauline will be on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. in the Dominican Life Center lobby. The Wake will follow from 6:15 to 7:00 p.m. in the Rose Room. The Reception of the Body and Vigil Prayer will be at 7:00 p.m. in St. Catherine Chapel. The Mass of Christian Burial will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel on Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. The Rite of Committal will be in the Congregation cemetery.

Memorial gifts may be made to Bridges and Pathways of Courage, 1161 Grignon Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 54301, or to the Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

 

 

 

 

Right: Sister Pauline with Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP, then Master of the Dominican Order, November 2005

From left: The Quinn cousins, from left, Sister Pauline (Kathy), Sue, Patsy, and Mary Frances, 1988. Sister Pauline and Pax during a visit to Hong Kong, November 2018

 

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(1926-2020)

The fertile farm territory of Michigan’s “Thumb” region was for many years also fertile in a very different way for the Adrian Dominican Sisters: as a source of vocations.

One of the many young women to enter the Congregation from the Thumb was Ruth Rabideau, who was born in Unionville, a small town located near Gagetown, which was the site of St. Agatha Parish where the Adrian Dominicans taught. Ruth was known to often refer to St. Agatha’s as “the cathedral in a cornfield.”

Born on October 1, 1926, Ruth was the fifth of six children of Francis and Josephine (LaFave) Rabideau. Her siblings were Vernice, Thomas, Robert, Richard, and Joan. The family lived in a large farmhouse along with Francis’ parents, and at times, especially during the Great Depression, aunts and uncles lived there as well. “This all seemed very natural to me since everyone was accepted and loved as an important member of the family,” she wrote in her life story. “It was my first experience of true community living.”

Rural life gave Ruth and her brothers and sisters plenty of places to play and make new discoveries. Summers were times to visit aunts and uncles who lived in other parts of the state and to go with them to the Detroit Zoo, Greenfield Village, and Detroit Tigers baseball games.

Read more about Sister Ruth (pdf)

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

 

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(1928-2020)

“We gather this morning to remember a good and a kind and a loving woman who reminded us to live life fully even as her full life began to diminish.”

These words came near the beginning of Sister Mary Sue Kennedy’s homily for Sister Anastasia McNichols, a woman who Sister Mary Sue called “a preacher with her life.”

Anastasia Catherine McNichols was born on November 24, 1928, in Chicago to Leo John and Stasia (Ryan) McNichols. She was the couple’s only child. Leo, who worked as a contractor, died in an accident when Anastasia was just nine months old. Although she never knew her father, she said in her 2016 “A Sister’s Story” video that she grew up hearing stories about what a fine man he was. Her grandparents, with whom Stasia and her young daughter went to live, helped raise – and, by her own admission, spoil – the little girl for the first eight years of her life.

“I was very blessed with a very good family,” she said, not only her grandparents but her uncles and aunts and cousins.

Read more about Sister Anastasia (pdf)

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

 

 

 

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(1928-2020)

A summertime trip to Florida in 1951 and a chance meeting there with Monsignor William Barry, one of Mother Gerald’s brothers, led to a new postulant for the Adrian Dominicans in the person of Dolores Smith, the future Sister Laura Marie.

Dolores, who was baptized Ruth Dolores but was never called by her first name, was born on November 10, 1928, in Cleveland, Ohio, to William and CharLaura (Dunn) Smith. She was the youngest of three daughters; the eldest, WillLaura, died at some point prior to Dolores’ birth, and so “my entrance into the world was a most welcome addition,” Laura Marie wrote in her autobiography. Her other sister, Mary Lee, just thirteen months older than she was, became her “protector and guide.” Each day when she came home from school, Mary Lee would teach Dolores what she had learned that day, and even taught her to read using the Sunday comics.

William was born in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and CharLaura came from Houston, Texas. CharLaura’s parents, Charles and Laura (hence the combined names for their daughter) came from Ireland and Oklahoma, respectively. Laura’s parents had moved West from Atlanta, Georgia, after the Civil War, and their descendants’ resulting Irish and Southern lineage was a source of great pride

Sister Laura Marie’s life story gives no indication of how or where William and CharLaura met, but after their marriage they moved to Cleveland in large part because of the city’s fine school system. According to the Congregation’s records, William worked as a salesman and CharLaura was a cashier.

Read more about Sister Laura Marie (pdf)

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

 

 

 

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