(1934-2023)

For Joan Ann Marconi, an unhappy experience – her parents’ painful divorce – paved the way for something much better in her life: her introduction to the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Joan was born in Boston on June 23, 1934, to Armand and Irene (Gagliardi) Marconi. It is not known how Armand, a native of Rome, Italy, and Irene met, but they married in Boston in 1931.

Because of complications during her birth, Joan ended up being her parents’ only child. Still, she was surrounded by extended family; she grew up among many uncles and aunts, and Sunday dinners at her maternal grandparents’ house could easily involve some twenty people. In her March 25, 2019, “A Sister’s Story” video, she told the story of how her grandmother fed not only the family but many neighbors as well. It was Joan’s job as a child to take plates of pasta to these neighbors and then, several days later, go around and pick up the plates in preparation for the next Sunday.

She was in about second grade when her parents divorced, and she lived with her maternal grandparents for several years when her mother was offered a job in Miami, Florida. Then, after eighth grade, she moved to Florida to live with her mother. Irene earned a good wage as a bookkeeper, and “life in the sunny South became both exciting and energizing for me,” Sister Joan wrote. “I was also thrilled to be with my Mom."

Read more about Sister Joan (PDF)

 

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

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

(1932-2023)

On September 6, 1961, three young women arrived in Adrian from San Fernando in the Philippines to begin their formation process to serve as the nucleus for a new Dominican congregation back home. The next September, two more of what Mother Gerald dubbed “The Queen’s Daughters” – because she was so impressed by their gracious manners – joined the two of their countrywomen who had remained.

One of the 1962 arrivals was Evangelina Fernandez, or Vangie as she was called. Vangie was born on April 25, 1932, in Talavera in the Philippine province of Nueva Ecija. Her parents were Ciriaco and Jacinta Garcia Fernandez.

Vangie graduated from Talavera Provincial High School in 1949 and went on to become certified as a teacher by the Philippine Normal School in 1952. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary and high school education from Wesleyan College in Cabanatuan City in 1957.

Read more about Sister Evangelina (PDF)

 

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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

(1935-2023)

Eugene McAuliffe was visiting his brother in a Spokane, Washington, hospital when he encountered the lady who would soon become his wife, Sally Milnor, the daughter of a ship’s captain who often took his children along on his seafaring adventures. The couple settled in Spokane after their marriage, and on January 12, 1935, their first child, Virginia Kathryn, the future Sister Rosaire, entered the world.

Just a few months later, with the Great Depression at its height, the Works Progress Administration was established, and Gene became part of the crew that built the Grand Coulee Dam. He moved his wife and baby daughter to a town built for the workers called Coulee City, and it was there that two more children, James and Sally, came into the family.

In 1940, with work slowing on the dam, the McAuliffes moved to Snohomish, Washington, where Gene worked as a construction supervisor, and the family grew by two: Patricia and Michael. Then, as the United States entered World War II in 1942, Gene took advantage of the booming shipbuilding industry and moved the family once again, this time to Bremerton, Washington.

Virginia attended elementary school at Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Bremerton and then went to high school at Holy Angels Academy in Seattle, where the Everett Dominican Sisters (later to become the Edmonds Dominican Sisters) were her teachers. She entered the Everett congregation after graduating from Holy Angels in 1953 and was received as a novice in June 1954, with the religious name Sister Rosaire.

Read more about Sister Rosaire (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). 

(1932-2023)

Our Dominican brother, Meister Eckhart, said: “Those who follow compassion will find life for themselves, justice for their neighbors, and glory for God.” I believe that each of us was created by Love, out of Love, for Love, to be a unique manifestation of that Love for a short period of time on Mother Earth; then, be one with that Love for all Eternity. Truly, Angie loved life and found her life especially meaningful in being Christ’s compassionate Presence wherever there were people in need. 

This quote is taken from the funeral homily preached by Sister Joan Delaplane for Sister Angela Susalla, who counted among her ministries six years of service in rural western Tennessee and thirty-one years in Tunica, Mississippi, in both places serving some of this country’s most disadvantaged residents.

Mary Angela Susalla was born May 31, 1932, in Detroit to David and Bertha (Zinger) Susalla. She was the fourth of eight children, coming after David, Elda, and Ernest and before Elaine, Tom, Larry, and Karen.

Her parents both grew up in Michigan’s “Thumb” area; David was born in Paris Township, and Bertha, although she was born in Detroit, spent her early childhood in Ubly. The two first met in school, reconnected after both had moved to Detroit, and 
married in 1926.

Read more about Sister Angela (PDF).

 

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

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