(1928-2016)

Sister Barbara Wetterer, known also as Sister Marie Giles, was born on July 7, 1928, in Chicago. She was the second of three children born to Giles and Mildred (Thiel) Wetterer. Her older sister Mary was born in 1924. Barbara and her twin brother Giles were born four years later. 

In her autobiography, Sister Barbara described her family’s gradual migration to Florida. She wrote:

Ferdinand J. Wetterer, my fraternal grandfather, was the owner of the Germania Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the brewery was sold in the days of prohibition, my father moved to Chicago where he became the vice president of his uncle’s rivet manufacturing company in Chicago. The three of us were born in Chicago and lived in Rogers Park until after the death of our father from cancer in 1934. My grandparents had moved to Miami Beach, Florida, and when my brother was found to be suffering from asthma, we also migrated to Miami Beach, Florida, to see if the salt-water would help my brother.

We all attended and graduated from St. Patrick School in Miami Beach which was very different during WWII. The government had taken over all the hotels and 25,000 military were stationed there. A training school for officers was also located there.

Read more about Sister Barbara (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).