SLs

Frances Gertrude Zoghby was the eldest of nine children of George Kaleel and Emma Kahalley Zoghby. Her father was born in Beirut, which was Syria at the time, now Lebanon. Her mother was a native of Mobile, Ala., and the Zoghbys raised their family there in Immaculate Conception Cathedral Parish. Of Frances’ siblings in this close knit family, three are living, as well as three of their spouses. Miriam, Cecilia and Raymond have been Frances’ faithful companions especially in her final years.

Mary Eloise Jarvis was the elder of two daughters born to Henry Noel Jarvis and Mary Wheatley Jarvis of Harrisburg, Ill. Henry, like his brothers, was a veterinarian surgeon; Mary was a music teacher and a gifted musician who passed on her gifts to both Eloise and her younger sister Eleanor. Eloise’s musical education began as soon as she could reach the piano keyboard and continued under her mother’s careful teaching for 12 years.

Sister Helen Ann was born May 17, 1918, in Rockford, Ill. She was one of four daughters and two sons of Marie Ellen (Hennessey) and Thomas J. Reynolds. She entered the Sisters of Loretto from St. Peter Parish, Rockford, in 1936. Sister Helen Ann received the habit and her religious name on April 25, 1937, pronounced her first vows on April 25, 1939 and made her final vows on Aug. 15, 1942.

Carina Vetter was the seventh and youngest child born to Bernard Vetter and Bertha Pittrick Vetter. Her parents were first generation German-Americans, born in Cole County Missouri to German immigrants in the decade following the Civil War. Carina was born and raised in Jefferson City, Missouri, where she attended St. Peter’s parish grade and high school, taught by the Notre Dame Sisters. Graduating in 1937, during the lean years of the Great Depression, she put aside her desire to attend college and went to work as bookkeeper at an uncle’s machine shop.

Margaret Ann Hummel was born in Louisville, Ky., on St. Patrick’s Day 1932, just a few minutes after her twin sister, Rose Marie. They were the fourth and fifth children of six born to Norbert Daniel Hummel Sr. and Margaret Maloney Hummel, both Louisville natives. Margaret wrote in her autobiography that her parents fostered in all six children solid family traditions and religious values.

(Note: This remembrance draws heavily from the three autobiographies which Sister Margaret Fitzgerald contributed to her personnel file in the archive.) Margaret was born in Sterling Ill., the fourth of 15 children of Earle Fitzgerald and Virginia Schiltz. Of her family…

October 11, 1919 – March 14, 2014

Sister Charles Maureen Walker’s life closely follows the lives of early Loretto school-women from the Kentucky Holy Land. Baptized Mary Virginia at St. Charles Church, near Little Loretto, she grew up in the town of Loretto, the oldest child of her mother, Sadie--Mary Sarah O’Daniel, who married Charles Thomas Walker and raised his two daughters and the seven children they had together. Charles was the barber in Loretto for 39 years and their children attended Loretto Public School with the Sisters of Loretto. Mary Virginia began high school with the Ursuline Sisters at St. Francis in Chicago, Kentucky (just west of Loretto on the railroad line).

June 2, 1928 - March 10, 2014

Mary Jane Richardson was born to Catholic Kentuckians Roy Clinton Richardson and Elsie Margaret Kippes Richardson in Louisville Kentucky, where she grew up in St. Benedict’s Parish, the sixth child and only girl in a family with eight brothers, one of whom died in childhood. Jane was taught from the beginning by Loretto Sisters, at St. Benedict’s Elementary and Loretto High School, Louisville. She entered Loretto immediately after high school, receiving the habit and the name Sister Jane Marie on April 25, 1947.

November 11, 1925—February 16, 2014

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Leo James and Mary Sonefeld White, the daughter who would become Sister Ann White was baptized Mary Inez. In an autobiographical sketch written in the late 1980s, Ann called herself “a first generation Kentuckian, since my parents were transferred to Louisville from Grand Rapids, Michigan.” Little Inez began elementary school at St. Vincent DePaul parish, but moved with her family after just one month to Louisville’s west end, where she was enrolled at Christ the King School even though her family lived outside the parish bounds.

July 31, 1920 - November 29, 2013

I have never been in a place that I haven’t fallen in love with, have never had any living experiences except happy ones. I have continued to LOVE the sisters. When choices became ours to make, I chose Santa Clara, then I chose Denver and now I am basking in my last choice, life once again at Loretto in Kentucky. This just might be the second-best choice of my life. Second, because going to Loretto in 1942 was my first, best choice.

December 29, 1932 - October 29, 2013

“I still share my nursing a little with older sisters. Since returning to the Motherhouse, I have added pastoral care to my experience. As part of a team, I take communion to the sisters in our infirmary. I pray with two groups. To others I offer some time of presence with them.” Serving the people of God was always Julia’s goal. Loretto joins many others in saying Thank you, Sister Julia Anne, for your many years of faithful service.