(1924-2019)

For two people who meet in the “big city” and fall in love to have both come from the same small town rather defies the odds. But that’s exactly what happened for Henry Kerich and Irene Dugas.

Henry and Irene were both born in Little Falls, Minnesota, population 5,774 at the time of the 1900 Census, when each would have been four years old. As adults, they met in Minneapolis, some one hundred miles to the southeast. Henry was a laundry worker at the Nicolett Hotel and Irene worked as a secretary.

Henry was the third oldest of twelve children born into a German immigrant family, and had to leave school after the fourth grade to help with family finances. Irene came from a French immigrant family that came first to Winnipeg, Canada, and then to Minnesota to work in the lumber camps. “This was Paul Bunyan country, and how I loved the stories my mother used to tell,” their youngest child and only daughter, the future Sister Irene Marie, wrote in her first St. Catherine letter. 

The couple had been married for three years when Mary Louise was born on September 30, 1924. Two brothers followed over time: Douglas and then William. Bill was born when Mary Louise was ten, “old enough to help with the preparations,” she wrote, “and once I recovered from my major disappointment that he was not the sister I wanted so badly, I thoroughly enjoyed being his one and only baby-sitter. I am ashamed to admit all the fights I had with Doug as we were growing up, but never was there such a problem with Bill.”

Read more about Sister Irene Marie (pdf)

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

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(1924-2019)

Now that she has gone before us, well marked with the sign of faith, she adds her value from heaven, cheering us as we refuse poverty and indignity, making sure God sees what we are doing and blesses us, and interceding for our work to rebuke evil and make poverty recede. Even recede by one half an inch.

These words are excerpted from an email sent to Adrian by Father Rick Frechette, CP, to be read at the wake service for Sister Philomena Perreault. Father Rick and Sister Philomena had spent many years working together in Haiti, right from the start of the Our Little Brothers and Sisters orphanage (Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs) which Father Frechette helped found in 1987.

Marie Therese Perreault was born on July 30, 1924, in Manchester, New Hampshire, the youngest of five children – the others being Lucien, Rita, Irene, and Leo, who was killed in World War II – born to Arthur and Marie (Arel) Perreault, French-Canadians who had immigrated to the United States. When she was two, her parents divorced, and she and her siblings were all sent to an orphanage. Her mother took her (and only her, out of all her children) back for good when Sister Philomena was ten years old.

Sister Philomena’s next stop was Eureka, California, after she completed her elementary education. She went to work at a medical clinic while attending high school and actually did not complete her schooling until years after the usual age for doing so. A retreat at the Vallombrosa Center in Menlo Park, California, in 1949 connected her with Sister Kevin Ryan of the Dominican Sisters of Everett, Washington (later to become the Edmonds Dominicans), and she ultimately decided she wished to become a religious.

Read more about Sister Philomena (pdf)

(1928-2019)

A woman of great generosity, who was a friend to everyone she met and who remained faithful to her prayer life and to daily Mass, even as she struggled more and more with memory loss in her last years: this was how Sister Beverly McEachin was remembered by her friend and fellow “crowd” member Sister Ann Romayne Fallon after her death on April 26, 2019.

“Beverly, you have been an inspiration to all who have known you over a lifetime but especially those who have witnessed your struggle with the loss of memory while never losing the ability to smile, to wave and make us realize you were our friend,” said Sister Ann Romayne as she concluded her homily at Sister Beverly’s funeral on May 3.

Sister Beverly McEachin was born on July 5, 1928, at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital in Detroit, the first child of Neil and Mildred (Piche) McEachin. Five more children came into the family over time: Robert, Patrick, Marilyn, Susan, and Gail.

(1936-2019)

“We knew Ellen as a Renaissance woman and a leader, who was always ready to build community and to take on any challenge that was given her. She had many talents stuffed in that little tool box of hers. … Ellen led in elegant ways and in simple ways.”

These words began the remarks by Mary “Pidge” Newbauer at Sister Ellen Murphy’s wake service on April 16, 2019. Mary and her husband, John, were longtime friends of Sister Ellen’s.

Sister Ellen Murphy was born on May 26, 1936, in Detroit to Joseph and Cecilia (Kenney) Murphy. Joseph and Cecilia were both born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, to Irish-immigrant parents, and came to Detroit during the Great Depression in search of work.

Early in their married life, the couple discovered they would likely never be able to have children, due to an injury Cecilia had suffered in childhood. “At first she was devastated, but she had a secret weapon unknown to the medical community: strong, lifelong devotion to the Blessed Mother under the title of ‘Mother of Perpetual Help,’” Sister Ellen wrote in her autobiography.

One week after Joseph and Cecilia’s tenth wedding anniversary, and six days after Cecilia’s fortieth birthday, Ellen Patricia Murphy came into the world at Detroit’s St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital. Because of complications during the birth, she was immediately baptized in the delivery room. She was the couple’s only child.

Read more about Sister Ellen (pdf)

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

Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).