teacher

Adrian Dominican Sister Jane Ellen (Eleanor Frances) Allison, 91, died Dec. 28. A Chicago native, she was in the 73rd year of her religious profession. She spent 40 years ministering in education in several states. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she served at St. Philip Neri School, from 1940-41; St. Edmund, Oak Park, from 1943-44; Aquinas High School, Chicago, from 1945-57; and at both St. Margaret Mary and Queen of All Saints, from 1970-88. She retired at Regina Convent in Wilmette in 1988, and moved to the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan, in 1996.

Sr. Dorothy Klopfenstein

Teacher

Sister of Providence Dorothy Louise (Marie) Klopfenstein, 89, died Dec. 22. Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., she entered the Sisters of Providence in 1933 and professed her final vows in 1940. She ministered as a teacher for 54 years and taught in several states. In Illinois, she taught at St. Andrew, Chicago, from 1940-42.

Mary Talley

Parish/Community Advocate

Mrs. Mary Talley, 89, died Dec. 2 in her Oak Lawn home. Born on a Potawatomi Indian reservation in Kansas, her family moved to Chicago when she was 8. She attended Holy Cross Grade School on the East Side and Hyde Park High School. She married her husband, Glenn, in 1941.

Mrs. Talley was a founding member of Queen of Martyrs Parish, Evergreen Park, held every office in its Altar and Rosary Society through the years, and was a lector. She was elected District 16 president of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women in 1963-65.

At 50, she earned a nursing degree and became an LPN at Christ Hospital, Oak Lawn, for 10 years.

A community advocate, in 1984 she was a catalyst in getting 146 single family homes built in the southwest corner of the city, which the developer later named “Talley’s Corner” in her honor. In 1990 Mayor Richard Daley inducted Mrs. Talley into Chicago’s Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. She is survived by her husband; a daughter, Kathy Ainslie; her son-in-law; and three grandsons.

Sr. Carla Gales

teacher

Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Carla Lucille Gales, 85, died Nov. 22. Born in Livermore, Iowa, she was in the 58th year of her religious profession. She taught for several years until an illness left her disabled. She then continued to visit nursing homes and was an active member in the League of Women Voters. The youngest of 10 siblings, she is survived by five sisters and a brother.

Sr. M. Victorine Michalski

Cared for Young and Old

Felician Sister Mary Victorine Michalski, 90, died Nov. 13 at Our Lady of the Angels Convent in Chicago. A native Chicagoan, she joined the Felician Sisters in 1929 from St. Joseph Parish. Sister Mary Victorine taught at St. Bruno School from 1931-1932, supervised 5th- and 6th-grade boys at St. Hedwig Orphanage in Niles from 1949-1951 and assisted the aged at St. Andrew Home from 1966-1967. In between and after those years she worked with orphans in Milwaukee and the aged in Manitowoc, Wis., and provided services for her sisters in community at the provincialate in Chicago.

Sr. Francis Loughery

professor

Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Francis Assisi Loughery, 81, died Nov. 10. A native of Cicero, she made her final profession of vows in 1953. She taught for 20 years and served as Postulant Mistress for three years. She earned a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago in 1944, her Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1961, her Licentiate and Doctorate in 1963 and 1970, respectively.

She was invited to teach theology at Regina Mundi in Rome from 1973-78. From 1979-82, she was research associate on the Leonine Commission at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. In 1996, she retired to Trinity Convent in River Forest, and in 2002, to Divine Providence Convent in Des Plaines.

Sr. Agnes Hester

Teacher

Sister of Providence Agnes Veronica (Josephine) Hester died Dec. 18. Born in Joliet, she entered the Sisters of Providence in 1937 and professed her final vows in 1945. She taught in schools in Illinois and Indiana. She also spent nine years teaching in Peru. In the Chicago area, she taught at Our Lady of Sorrows School, from 1955-59; St. Joseph, Downers Grove, from 1971-73; and St. Mark, Chicago, from 1973-90.

Sr. Helen Doyle

Teacher

Adrian Dominican Sister Helen Clare Doyle, 92, died Dec, 14. Born in Detroit, she was in the 72nd year of her religious profession. She spent 46 years ministering in education in several states, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In Illinois she taught at Aquinas High School, Chicago, from 1936-38.

Sr. Ann Mary Dietz

Teacher

Sister of Providence Ann Mary (Eleanor Ottilla) Dietz 87, died Dec. 11. Born in Indianapolis, she entered the Sisters of Providence in 1940 and professed her final vows in 1948. She taught in several states.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she served at Our Lady of Sorrows, from 1942-47; and at St. Genevieve, from 1953-57.

Fr. John Shirey

former columnist

Father John Shirey, 85, pastor emeritus of the former St. Catherine of Genoa Parish, died Dec. 19 following a long illness. He was a resident of Resurrection Life Center in Chicago at the time of his death.

Father Shirey grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from Quigley Preparatory Seminary and the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Ordained in 1943, Father Shirey spent much of his 60 years as a priest serving congregations on the South Side. He was a world traveler.

He was assistant pastor of St. Sabina Parish for six years, beginning in 1943. In those days, the parish held seven novenas on Fridays that drew 4,000 people. During the decade of the ’50s, he was assistant pastor at St. Mary Parish, Riverside. He took on the same position at St. Kevin Parish in 1961, and served there for five years before becoming assistant pastor at St. Gertrude in Rogers Park.

In 1969, Father Shirey began a 12-year pastorship at St. Catherine of Genoa, a South Side parish now closed. In 1988, he became the associate pastor of St. Kilian, serving in that capacity for seven years until his retirement in 1988. In that year, Father Shirey was named pastor emeritus of St. Catherine. He continued to live at St. Kilian after his retirement.

For 10 years beginning in 1966, he wrote “Here’s the Answer,” a question-and-answer column for the archdiocesan newspaper.

Fr. Joseph Ognibene

Rescued Children from Fire

Father Joseph Ognibene, 77, an assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in the 1950s, and one who was instrumental in rescuing children on the day a fire killed 92 students and three nuns in the parish school, died Dec. 19. Father Ognibene was in residence at St. Colette Parish in Rolling Meadows at the time of his death.

Ordained in 1952, his first assignment was as assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Angels Parish on the city’s Northwest Side. Father Ognibene served there for nine years. He remained close to the survivors of the fire, acting as a sort of chaplain for a group of survivors and friends of survivors that has continued to meet.

He became assistant pastor at Our Lady Help of Christians on the West Side in 1961, and for eight years, beginning in 1965, he was assistant pastor at St. Ferdinand Parish.

He served for two years as assistant pastor at St. Frances of Rome Parish in Cicero before being named pastor of St. Beatrice Parish in Schiller Park in 1975.

After eight years, Father Ognibene was named pastor at Our Lady Mother of the Church on the Northwest Side, and was pastor there for 13 years, during which time he also headed one of the deaneries in the vicariate serving the Northwest Side and western suburbs.

When he retired in 1996, Father Ognibene was named pastor emeritus of Our Lady Mother of the Church.

For the past seven years, as a priest in residence at St. Colette Parish in Rolling Meadows, he was active in serving the needs of the parish and was involved in several ministries there.

Sr. Clementina Snoblen

Teacher

Sister of Providence Clementina (Florence Anna) Snoblen, 98, died Nov. 16. Born in Kings Mills, Mich., she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence in 1924. She professed her first vows in 1927 and her final vows in 1932.

She taught in schools in several states. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at St. Angela Parish from 1926-32.

 

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