(1929-2021)

Among the many youngsters who experienced World War II in an up close and personal way were the six children of Patrick and Margaret (McKeigue) Nugent, one of whom went on to become our Sister Mary Nugent.

Patrick and Margaret were both Irish immigrants to Chicago in the early 1920s, with Patrick coming from Dublin and Margaret from Galway. They married in Chicago in 1926 and soon had a son, Richard, who died of pneumonia at just six weeks of age. Over time, six girls followed; Mary Therese, the oldest, was born on May 10, 1929.

The family moved to England in 1936 after Mary finished first grade, because Patrick, who worked for Philco Radio, was sent there to learn from the British engineers who were developing the then-new technology of television. Three girls were in the family at the time: Mary, Pat, and Eleanor.

What Patrick and Margaret hadn’t planned on when they and the children set off on their overseas adventure, of course, was World War II. The family moved from England to Ireland to be near their relatives literally just as the war broke out in 1939. The ship they were on arrived in Dublin just as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s announcement that war had been declared on Germany was being broadcast over the ship’s P.A. system.

“I was ten years old,” Sister Mary wrote in her autobiography. “I didn’t realize all the implications of those words, but I did notice that my mother, standing next to me, was crying. I don’t think I had ever seen her cry before.”

Read more about Sister Mary (PDF)

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

 

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