(1929-2021)

When I think back over my life, my first thought is of gratitude to God for the “wonders God has done.” From my beginning in my mother’s womb, I have been richly blessed. My wonderful parents gave me both physical life and a firm faith in a God who is Love.

This was how Sister Virginia Pearson started her autobiography, a story which she concluded with gratitude to her family, friends, and the Dominican Sisters of Edmonds “for their essential gift of love and their many kindnesses,” and to the Dominican Sisters of Adrian for their “welcoming inclusion.”

Virginia Rose Pearson was born on August 3, 1929, to Albert and Clara (Haag) Pearson. Albert and Clara were both natives of Washington state who, when each was young, moved to Alaska – still a territory at the time – “in search of work and adventure.” They met and married in Fairbanks, where Virginia was born.

Her residence in Alaska was short-lived at that time, however, for when she was about three months old the little family moved to Seattle. Two brothers, Ted and Jack, followed within the next three years.

The summer before Virginia would have started second grade, the family moved to a section of Seattle known as Queen Anne Hill so that the children could attend St. Anne’s School, where they were taught by the Holy Names Sisters. But while these Sisters were fine teachers and examples of the faith, Virginia was more drawn to the Sisters who taught her in high school at Holy Angels Academy, “many of whom were true inspirations to me”: the Everett Dominicans, as they were known in those years before they moved to Edmonds in 1956.

Read more about Sister Virginia (pdf)

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

 

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