May 21, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jennifer Roseman, Director of Communications & Development
(509) 474-2395 or (509) 994-5032
For photo availability, contact Jennifer Roseman
Fourteen Sisters of Providence will celebrate 25, 50, 60, 70 and 75 years of religious life at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 26, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, 7000 35th Avenue SW, Seattle. The Rev. John R. Walmesley will be the celebrant for the liturgy, which will be followed by a reception in Guadalupe Hall.
75 years
Claire Gagnon, SP
(Sister Marcelle Odile)
Sister Claire Gagnon was born Marie Claire Gagnon on August 12, 1919, in St. Prosper, Quebec, Canada, and grew up with her sister in the Sisters of Providence orphanage at Trois Rivieres. She entered the novitiate at the motherhouse in Montreal in 1938. Her first mission was to help the sisters in the infirmary at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, and to learn English. In August 1941 she went to Sacred Heart School in Tacoma to cook for sisters in the convent.
Sister Claire served in nursing at hospitals in Seattle and Tacoma before moving into administration, including 13 years as superior/administrator at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Wash. In 1975 she started the pastoral care department at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, caring for the spiritual needs of patients, their families and the staff. She retired to St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, in 2003.
70 years
Rebecca Berghoff, SP
Sister Rebecca Berghoff was born Elizabeth Jean Berghoff on February 8, 1925, in Yakima, Wash., and entered the Sisters of Providence in 1943 in Seattle. A longtime teacher and administrator, her first mission was in a second-grade classroom at St. Catherine School in Seattle. She also taught in Olympia, Yakima and Sun Valley, Calif., and served as principal at St. Joseph Grade School, Yakima.
Sister Rebecca also spent 18 years at Providence High School, Burbank, Calif., 13 of them as principal, and 25 years as principal of St. Joseph/Marquette Academy in Yakima, followed by three years as vice principal. She lives at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle.
Dorothy Byrne, SP
(Sister Dolores)
Sister Dorothy Byrne was born November 17, 1923, in northern Montana and grew up in Kevin, Mont., with her parents and brother, retired Father Joseph Byrne of the Diocese of Helena. She entered the novitiate in Seattle in 1943.
Sister Dorothy was a teacher and/or principal for 25 years at St. Joseph Academy, Sprague, Wash.; St. Francis Xavier School, Missoula, Mont.; St. Raphael School, Glasgow, Mont.; DeSales High School, Walla Walla, Wash.; and Marycliff High School, Spokane. She also was a pastoral associate for two years at Assumption Parish, Spokane, and for 18 years at Sacred Heart Parish, Spokane, where she continues her association today.
She was a longtime friend and caregiver of Sister Michelle Holland, who died in 2007. Sister Dorothy is retired and lives at Emilie Court in Spokane.
Anne Deuprey, SP
(Sister Rose)
Sister Anne Deuprey was born June 26, 1916, in Reno, Nev., and grew up in Long Beach and Oakland, Calif. She trained to become an opera singer, but when she was not chosen for the chorus of the San Francisco Opera she gave up her ambition to sing professionally. She entered the novitiate in Seattle in 1944 after working as a registered nurse.
Sister Anne spent 30 years in nursing, beginning in obstetrics at Providence Hospital in Everett, Wash., and at Providence Hospital in Seattle and St. Joseph Hospital in Vancouver, Wash. She was a pastoral care associate at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, and at Holy Rosary parish in West Seattle. She also served as a staff nurse on the psychiatric unit at Harborview Medical Center and in a ministry focused on the elderly poor, especially alcoholics, in Portland’s Burnside area, with the Northwest Pilot Project, and through Catholic Family Emergency Service, Heritage House and the King County Jail.
Sister Anne lives at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle.
Katherine Ann Markel, SP
(Sister Mary Theodora)
Sister Katherine Ann Markel was born November 25, 1923, on a farm near Mandan, North Dakota, and moved with her family to Yakima, Wash., as a youngster. She entered the novitiate at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, in 1943. Her first ministry was as kindergarten teacher at St. Catherine School, Seattle, where she returned three times. She also taught in Vancouver, Tacoma and Yakima; Burbank, Calif.; and Fairbanks, Alaska. She left teaching in 1966 and spent the next 16 years in Coos Bay and Medford, Ore., ministering to the elderly and the sick, teaching religious education and making home visits.
Sister Katherine Ann also lived and worked with the elderly and the disabled at Vincent House, near Pike Place Market in Seattle, and volunteered as a teacher’s aide at Holy Family School in White Center, Wash. She lives at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, where she formerly had been a staff member.
Mary Ann Meyer, SP
(Sister Rosalia)
Sister Mary Ann Meyer was born December 9, 1924, in Washougal, Wash., and entered the novitiate in July 1943. Her ministries included teaching in Moxee, Olympia and Vancouver, Wash., where she was boarding mistress at Providence Academy, and in Seattle. She served six years as supervisor of eleven elementary schools administered by the Sisters of Providence, while also directing the education block in the College of Sister Formation at Providence Heights, Issaquah, Wash. She taught in the Issaquah School District and joined the curriculum department, where she designed and trained teachers and aides to implement a federal grant program to improve reading skills of children from low-income families.
Sister Mary Ann also served as director of religious education at St. Anthony Parish, Renton, Wash., and started an outreach program at St. Mary Parish, Aberdeen, Wash., where she also was a pastoral associate. She retired in Olympia but continued to volunteer at St. Michael Parish until she moved to St. Joseph Residence, Seattle.
60 years
Lucille Dean, SP
(Sister Assunta Marie)
Sister Lucille Dean was born March 19, 1935, in Seattle and entered the novitiate at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, in 1953. Her longtime career as a teacher and education administrator included serving as principal of her former elementary school, St. Catherine, in Seattle, where she taught the children of former classmates. She also taught in Yakima and Moxee, Wash.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Burbank, Calif. At Providence High School in Burbank, she provided leadership as a teacher, vice principal and principal.
Sister Lucille also was a former provincial superior and provincial council member of the former Sacred Heart Province as director of education, and a former chairperson of the board and board member of Providence Health & Services. Now retired, she lives in Seattle and is active in the religious community, on several boards, and as a volunteer.
Chloe Keitges, SP
(Sister Matthew Marie, SSMO)
Sister Chloe Keitges was born May 1, 1937, in Portland, Ore., and entered the Sisters of Providence as a transfer after 20 years as a Sister of St. Mary of Oregon. Her ministries included pioneering the role of “play lady” at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, providing pastoral care to children with cancer or in long-term care. She recreated that role as a pastoral minister in pediatrics at Providence Hospital in Everett, Wash.
Sister Chloe also served in pastoral care with the elderly at Providence Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, and was director of pastoral care at St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen, Wash. She helped start the healing ministry at Still Point House of Prayer, in Seattle, and took healing teams into prison and jail to pray with inmates. In Yakima, Wash., she taught English as a Second Language, opened a clothes closet for the needy, served as church sacristan and provided outreach to the elderly.
For the past decade she has lived at Emilie Court, Spokane, and volunteers at St. Anne’s Children & Family Center.
Mary Margaret Kelly, SP
(Sister Patrice Marie)
Sister Mary Margaret Kelly was born in Olympia on March 20, 1928. She took nurses’ training at St. Peter School of Nursing in Olympia, graduating in 1950. She entered the Sisters of Providence in 1954 after four years working as a registered nurse. She was a foundress of the Sisters of Providence mission in Argentina, where she remained for 17 ½ years. She wore a white missionary habit with a plain veil as she served as a nurse in two oil towns, Comodoro Rivadavia and Caleta Olivia.
Her other ministries included as a nursing supervisor at Providence Portland Medical Center and at Providence Medford Medical Center, and pastoral care at St. Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, Calif., and St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Yakima, Wash.
Sister Mary Margaret lives at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle.
Charlotte Van Dyke, SP
(Sister Paulette)
Sister Charlotte Van Dyke was born September 21, 1933, in Olympia, Wash., and entered the Sisters of Providence in 1954 after two years as a student nurse at Seattle University. She has flourished in four very different careers – teaching, nursing, hospital administration and law.
She taught in Walla Walla and Yakima, Wash., and in Burbank, Calif. She was a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital, Burbank, and then served for 20 years in administrative positions with Providence Health System, including at Providence Hospital in Seattle and at St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen. At age 55 she enrolled in law school at the University of Puget Sound. After earning her law degree and passing the bar exam, she shared a practice in Pioneer Square, Seattle, specializing in family law for low-income clients.
Sister Charlotte also served on the Mother Joseph Province Leadership Team and continues to serve in a host of volunteer board positions. She resides in Seattle.
50 years
Felma Cerezo, SP
(Given name: Fely Meneses Cerezo)
Sister Felma Cerezo was born June 9, 1941, in Binmaley, Pangasinan, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. She entered the Sisters of Providence in September 1963 and attended the College of Sister Formation in Providence Heights, Issaquah. She took a semester of nursing at Bellevue Community College and then earned an associate degree in arts and sciences. During the summers she was a nurses’ aide at Providence Hospital, Everett, Wash., and later went to Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, where she began in occupational therapy and created an arts and crafts program. She also taught in evening YWCA programs in West and North Seattle.
For 26 years, Sister Felma taught all manner of art classes at Providence High School, Burbank, Calif. Today, she resides in Seattle, is the official photographer for Mother Joseph Province, and is involved in many volunteer projects for the religious community.
Eleanor Goligoski, SP
(Sister Mary Eleanor)
Sister Eleanor Goligoski was born May 25, 1945, in Havre, Mont., and entered the Sisters of Providence in 1963 at Providence Heights, Issaquah, Wash. She made first profession in 1966 and final profession in 1971 at St. Jude’s Church in Havre. Her first mission was three years teaching fourth graders at St. Raphael Grade School in Glasgow, Mont., followed by Assumption School in Walla Walla, Wash., teaching grades four and six from 1971 to 1979. She took business courses with an emphasis on accounting at Spokane Community College and then began a ministry in finance as the Sisters’ Fund bookkeeper for the Provincial Administration. For three years she served as the registrar and treasurer at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, followed by appointment as the assistant administrator/bookkeeper of Mount St. Joseph in Spokane.
Sister Eleanor, who has served on various religious community committees, lives in Spokane and currently is a member of the Emilie Gamelin Mission Fund Committee.
Clare Lentz, SP
(Sister Clare Mary)
Sister Clare Lentz was born August 1, 1942, in Yakima, Wash., and entered the Sisters of Providence in 1963 at Providence Heights, Issaquah, Wash. Her first ministry was teaching math and religion for two years at Blanchet High School, Seattle. She was director of religious education at St. Michael Parish in Olympia, Wash., and then served on the provincial council as director for religious development.
She began a longtime ministry in spiritual direction and retreats while teaching scripture and liberation theology. She also served on the Providence Health System (now Providence Health & Services) board of directors. Sister Clare was parish administrator and director of religious education for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Anchorage, Alaska, and also director of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) at St. Brendan’s Parish in Bothell, Wash. She served as vocation director for Mother Joseph Province and has been involved in cross-cultural experiences in El Salvador and the Philippines. She recently returned to St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, and is in transition for ministry.
25 years
Elizabeth Cole, SP
Sister Elizabeth (Liz) Cole was born September 4, 1948, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and entered the Sisters of Providence in 1989 after 14 years teaching undergraduate psychology courses at Gonzaga University, Spokane. She returned to Canada for her novitiate in Edmonton, Alberta. During her apostolic year she taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to inmates in the penitentiary in Walla Walla, Wash. She professed final vows in 1995. A year of study in formation ministry at St. Louis University prepared her to work in formation ministry in Spokane, followed by a job in campus ministry at Gonzaga.
Sister Liz lives in Spokane, where she is intake coordinator for St. Joseph Family Center and is on the board of the Transitions intercommunity ministry.