(1932-2021)

Detroit, Michigan, and later the adjacent city of Grosse Pointe Farms were home to the large and devout Sutherland family, including the daughter who would later become Sister Kathleen.

Kathleen Marie, known to her family and friends as Kay, was born on June 25, 1932, to Ariel and Helen (Holmes) Sutherland. Ariel was born in Detroit, but his mother had died when he was very young and he was placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a Canadian family who needed an extra hand for their farm.

Ariel soon decided farm life was not for him, and he moved to Detroit at the age of eighteen. He and Helen, a Canadian native who was a schoolteacher in Ontario, married in Canada and settled on Detroit’s east side in St. Martin Parish.

The couple’s first child, a girl they named Mary Lois, died at just eight days old. Kathleen came next, and assumed the role of oldest sibling to nine more children: Marilyn Veronica, Thomas James, Mary Ann, Margaret Therese, John Joseph, Francis Patrick, Marion Cecilia, Judith Agnes, and Daniel Paul. John died of a brain tumor at the age of eight.

Read more about Sister Kay (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Sister's Prayer Card (PDF)

 

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