(1921-2019)

St. Rose of Lima Parish on Detroit’s east side was where Elizabeth June Hiller and her playmates – Harvey, Billy, Sonny, Harold, and Harold’s little sister, Shirley (the latter two the nephew and niece of Adrian Dominican Sister Ruth Grates) – spent many hours together doing typical childhood things: playing on Sonny’s swing set and monkey bars, eating cherries straight off of the tree in Harold and Shirley’s yard, hanging out under Elizabeth’s back porch in inclement weather.

Having four boys as friends was no impediment to Elizabeth, the future Sister Carol Louise. “I was a first-class tomboy determined to keep up with anyone in the neighborhood,” Sister Carol Louise wrote in her life story. “I had skinned and bloody knees to prove that determination.”

Elizabeth was born at home on October 11, 1921, to Ludwig and Caroline (Franz) Hiller. Ludwig was born in Vienna, Austria; his family came to America because the Emperor was conscripting young men for military service and out of the Hillers’ six boys, two were already in the army. The Hillers settled in Forestville, in the “Thumb” area of Michigan, but when Ludwig was old enough he moved to Detroit. He and Caroline married in 1916.