(1929-2019)

When Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin transitioned away from the Presidency of Barry University in 1994, she was honored at a celebratory luncheon as “a durable woman who went ahead of us leading the way often through uncharted waters.”

Several memories of Sister Jeanne’s tenure at Barry are found in those luncheon remarks. Found there is a mention of the creative ways in which she got donors to contribute toward a capital project on Barry’s “west forty” acreage – singing a song, accepting a bet regarding learning to ballroom dance – and an accounting of all the people she had helped to get a Barry education, ranging from countless underprivileged students to hundreds of refugees.

In all, Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin spent twenty-three years as Barry’s president. That ministry was part of a long life of service to the field of education as well as to the Congregation itself.

Sister Jeanne was born on May 4, 1929, in Detroit to Thomas Anthony and Mary Margaret (Croak) O’Laughlin. She had very few memories of her mother, who died of complications from childbirth not long after Sister Jeanne turned six years old. Sister Jeanne wrote in her autobiography that she remembered her father taking the children to the hospital and having them stand outside watching the window of the room where her mother was. “I recall the picture vividly of a man holding a woman in his arms as she waved at us,” she wrote. “That was the end of my life with my mother.”

Read more about Sister Jeanne (pdf)

(1922-2019)

“God has given me the grace of knowing that I want, more than anything else, to be a Sister of St. Dominic. Will you say that I may?”

The seventeen-year-old Mary Elizabeth O’Donnell, later to be known in religion as Sister Marie Joannes, was writing to Mother Gerald Barry on April 30, 1940, expressing her desire to enter the Congregation. At the time, Mary was less than two months away from graduating from Visitation High School in Detroit, and the Adrian Dominican Sisters who staffed the school had surely shaped her dream of religious life.

Mary was born on November 18, 1922, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Henry and Eva (Leppert) O’Donnell. Henry was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, while Eva was born in New York City. The couple had three children: Mary; Elizabeth, who was born in 1925; and Harry, born in 1928.

It seems that the family came to New York City at some point in 1928, for Mary attended St. Monica’s Parish school there in 1928-29 and was confirmed at the church in March 1929. By the time the 1929-30 school year began, the O’Donnells were in Michigan; Mary attended Visitation School for the rest of her elementary and secondary education. At least at the time she entered the Congregation, the family lived in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park and Henry was working at the Bower Roller Bearing Company factory in Detroit.

(1934-2019)

I came into this world on November 20, 1934. … It was my brother Don’s birthday the next day on the twenty-first of November. My dad told him he had an early birthday present. He was a bit disappointed as he was hoping to get a toy fire engine but instead received this crying baby sister.

So begins the autobiography of Sister Lorraine Pepin, which she subtitled I Have Called You by Name … You Are Mine and ended several pages later with these words from the Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord for he who is mighty has done great things for me.”

Sister Lorraine was born in Escanaba, Michigan, to John Baptist and Edna (Dubord) Pepin. She was the youngest of twelve children – nine boys and three girls – born into the family. “Although it was Depression time my parents must have thought it was cheaper by the dozen,” she wrote.

She grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins, in what she called a “welcoming and open” home. Her parents were the greatest influences of her life, and it was through their example of strong faith and prayer that she found God at a very young age. Her mother’s commitment to morning prayer and the deep spirituality of her father, and the way they all prayed the rosary together as a family – especially during the war years, she wrote, for four of the boys were in the service – all made a lasting impression upon her.

Read more about Sister Lorraine (pdf)

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

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(1920-2019)

“When I entered religious life in 1938, it was, as it were, a transferring or a joining of one grand big family with another.”

Those words from Sister Dorothy Jeanne Burns’ life story sum up the way she went from one experience of community – as the youngest of fifteen children (nine boys and six girls) born to James and Josephine (Rano) Burns. Thirteen lived to adulthood; Daniel died at birth and Michael died of diphtheria at age three.

James Burns was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish-immigrant father who with his brother had fled their homeland at the time of the Great Famine. At a young age, James worked with his father on the Union Railroad, and as an adult he continued to do similar work, eventually ending up in Detroit working for the Department of Street Railways as supervisor of the laying and maintenance of the streetcar tracks in and around the city.

Josephine was a native of St. Clair, Michigan, and just as her future husband had worked in the same place as his father, when she was a teenager Josephine and her father worked together at the Diamond Crystal Salt Company located in St. Clair.

Read more about Sister Dorothy (pdf)