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(1936-2025)
For many months I have been reflecting on the task of writing this autobiography. Over and over it has come to me that the overwhelming influence in my life is that of a generous God, one who has always provided for me and for my family and has allowed me to be generous in many ways.
Sister Chris Matthews began her autobiography with these sentences, and that thread of God’s generosity was woven throughout the pages that followed.
Christine Marie Matthews was born on December 11, 1936, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to James and Grace (Austin) Matthews. She was the second youngest of the couple’s five surviving children – two others died at birth – coming after Mary, Grace, and Janet and before Michael.
James was born on a farm in Hastings, Michigan, to a father who insisted that his boys work hard on the farm, to the point of having their education interrupted during planting and harvest time. When the farm failed, James’ father left the family, and so the children and their mother moved to Detroit. James went on to become a foreman at Ainsworth Manufacturing.
As for Grace, she was a fourth-generation Detroiter who grew up in a family that was very poor but was able to have fun nevertheless. A highlight was when the eldest Austin girl, Annie, would come home on payday with the latest song on sheet music and the family would sing as she played the piano. Although Grace’s family was too poor to even have a Christmas tree, when the neighbors discarded their tree after the holiday the Austin children would bring it into their house and decorate it.
When James and Grace met, James thought she was “the prettiest, peppiest girl he had ever known,” Sister Chris wrote. But after their first date, Grace told Jim it was not a good idea for them to go out since he was not Catholic. He immediately told her he would become Catholic, and soon thereafter began taking instruction in the faith.
As the couple raised their family, they were considered strict on many accounts, but “there was much fun and laughter in the house,” Sister Chris wrote. Holidays were full of relatives and good food, evening homework was often followed by a spirited card game, and the family spent summers at Torch Lake with plenty of fishing and swimming.
Read more about Sister Christine (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221.
Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)
Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.
Recording of Sister Christine's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Christine's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.
(1941-2025)
We remember and cherish Jamie as an African American Christian Catholic woman, member of the Order of Preachers at Adrian, sister, aunt, theologian, scholar, friend, teacher, colleague, counselor, administrator; advocate for racial and social justice, for diversity, equity, inclusion, and unity; advocate for human dignity, freedom, and liberation; for spiritual, intellectual, and moral excellence; advocate for a Church that would be committed to living concretely the mystery of “communion” in the name of Jesus.
This powerful description of Sister Jamie Phelps came from Dr. M. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita of theology at Boston College and Sister Jamie’s longtime friend and collaborator, in the homily Dr. Copeland preached for a funeral Mass presided over by Cardinal Wilton Gregory and attended by many of those whose lives Sister Jamie had touched.
Jamie Theresa Phelps was born in Pritchard, Alabama, on October 24, 1941. She was the youngest daughter out of a total of six siblings – herself, sisters Alfreda and Marionette, and brothers William, Julius, and Alfred Jr. – born to Alfred and Emma (Brown) Phelps.
Alfred and Emma met while attending Alabama A&M College. Alfred was a Catholic and Emma a Methodist, but the two were married in the Catholic Church and the children were all raised Catholic.
Not long after Jamie’s birth, her parents decided to leave the segregated South for Chicago, and Alfred traveled there to pave the way for the move. He started a business that provided walk-in refrigerators for mom-and-pop grocery stores, and once that was well established Emma and the family’s four children at the time took a train to Chicago, where they lived in an apartment near Holy Name Cathedral.
Read more about Sister Jamie (PDF)
Recording of Sister Jamie's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Jamie's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Jeanne Marie Stickling came into the world on December 5, 1936, on the family farm near Itasca, Illinois. She was the youngest child of Herman Leo and Louise (Lowe) Stickling, joining thirteen-year-old Betty, ten-year-old Leo, and 18-month-old Maryann.
The family moved twice during Jeanne’s childhood, first to a farm near Elgin, Illinois, when she was three years old, and then into Elgin itself, where her father worked in a factory, when she was in fifth grade. In Elgin, she and Maryann attended St. Mary School, and it was here that she first met the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
That connection to the Congregation continued at St. Edward High School, also in Elgin. “I was drawn to the happiness and kindness of the Sisters,” Sister Jeanne wrote in her autobiography, and in her senior year she decided to enter. Her family supported her choice, and in June 1954, not long after she graduated from high school, her parents and both sisters drove her to Adrian to become a postulant.
When the next school year began, she was sent to St. Gabriel School in Detroit to teach third grade for a short time, returning to Adrian in December to begin her canonical novitiate year. She received the religious name Sister Louis Anthony at her reception into the novitiate.
After making profession on New Year’s Eve 1955, she and a number of her temporary-professed compatriots remained in Adrian for study at Siena Heights College (University). Her first teaching assignment, in August 1956, was to St. Bridget School in Detroit, but after three weeks there, she was switched to St. James School in Miami, Florida, so that another Sister could be nearer to her ill mother in Detroit.
Read more about Sister Jeanne (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.
Recording of Sister Jeanne's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Jeanne's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1937-2025)
Four years after Leo John Kehn and his wife, Mabel Frances King, were married in Toledo, Ohio, the first of their two children entered the world, a daughter they named Barbara Lou.
Barbara was born on February 21, 1937, in Toledo, and was baptized three weeks later at Gesu Church, where her parents were members at the time. The Kehns’ second child, Judith Ann, arrived fourteen months after her sister.
Leo grew up in Toledo and worked on the railroad for a while before becoming a tool and die maker at City Auto Stamping, where he worked for thirty-four years. Mabel was born in nearby Perrysburg, came to Toledo to attend high school at Notre Dame Academy, and worked as a secretary at Auburn Motors until she and Leo married.
Both Kehn children attended Blessed Sacrament School and then Notre Dame Academy for high school. In Sister Joan Leo’s autobiography, she wrote at length about her very devout family home, where prayer was a daily practice. When the children got home from school each day, they would find their mother in her rocking chair saying the rosary, which became a family rosary and, later on, a weekly “Block Rosary” because other families in the neighborhood gathered in the Kehn home to pray.
It was “a very nurturing and happy home,” Sister Joan Leo wrote. Her parents were always interested in what had happened at school each day, and Mabel became a Brownie leader when her daughters got into Scouting.
Read more about Sister Joan Leo (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan Leo's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan Leo's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
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