(1919-2020)

In the late-night hours of September 26, 2020, just less than two hours before what would have been her 101st birthday, Sister Marie Bride Walsh went to join her parents and siblings in the presence of God.

Therese Rita Walsh was born September 27, 1919, in Chicago to John and Bridget (Lyons) Walsh. John was a Chicago native whose mother had immigrated to the U.S. from Canada, while Bridget was born in Ireland and came to the U.S. by herself at age sixteen or seventeen. “We think she lied about her age in order to get on the boat,” Sister Marie Bride said in her autobiography.

John and Bridget met when John was in Plattsburgh, New York, serving in the Army. Five children were born into the family: a boy, Joseph, and four girls: Janet, who changed her name to Jean; Mary, who also entered the Congregation and became Sister Mary Jean; Catherine, who changed her name to Kathleen and was nicknamed “Toss,” and Therese, the youngest.

Bridget died in January 1921when Therese was just over a year old, and the children ended up separated. Joseph and Janet went to live with an aunt and her husband on their farm in Rensselaer, New York, and the other three children went to another aunt in Troy, New York. A few years later when John remarried the family was reunited in Chicago, and lived in Our Lady of Sorrows Parish for a short time until John and May, his second wife, bought a home in Maywood, Illinois.

Read more about Sister Marie Bride (pdf)

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

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