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Sister Elise Hanrahan, SNJM
Sister Michael Marion
October 23, 1935 – January 30, 2025
Sister Elise Hanrahan, SNJM departed this life on January 30, 2025 in Saratoga, California.
Sister Elise celebrated 89 years of life and 68 years of her religious profession.
A Mass of Resurrection will be held Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Spirit Chapel in Campbell, California.
Burial will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Hayward, California.
Please join us in prayers of gratitude for the life of Sister Elise Hanrahan. Elise was 89 years old and had been a vowed member of our congregation since 1957.
Elise was a dedicated teacher who spent most of her life in formal education. She initially served in elementary schools in Southern California, the Bay Area and in Sacramento. She then transitioned to high school teaching, first at St. Monica’s and then at Ramona. She excelled in teaching young writers. She is remembered as a strict but wonderful English teacher, and her students are grateful for how she helped prepare them for success in college. She instilled a love of literature in her students. Elise loved sharing stories of her own days as a student at Ramona, and she enjoyed the thoughts her students had about earlier times at Ramona. After retirement she remained at Ramona, supporting students and staff.
We remember Elise as a quiet soul. She was a graceful and refined person with a beautiful smile. Elise enjoyed learning new things, taking time to study Spanish and Feminist Liberation Theology. Hospitality was important to her. She and Sister Jean Morningstar would gather tomatoes and vegetables from their own garden, which they carefully tended to season after season, and use them to prepare gourmet meals for their guests. When she moved to Merrill Gardens, she continued to be a quiet and gracious presence. One of her first stops each morning was the coffee machine, and then she would read the New York Times because it was important to her to know what was happening in the world. She was a woman of God, deeply committed to our community and to her family, friends and students. May her memory be blessed.