Senior Jubilarians

Helen Garvey, SNJM

Maureen Hester, SNJM

 

Jennie Lechtenberg, SNJM

Yvonne A. de Turenne, SNJM

After graduating from Holy Names Academy, Seattle, Sister Yvonne A. de Turenne entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Holy Names at Marylhurst, Oregon, with her older sister, Marguerite. Their double entry decision was difficult for their mother and grandmother to accept but in time they grew to feel better about Yvonne and Marguerite’s choice to enter. During the novitiate, Yvonne received the religious name Sister M. Rose Michele while Marguerite would be called Sister Jeanine Marie.

Yvonne always loved nursing. In high school all her term papers and other required assignments were about nursing. Her last two years in high school she worked as a nurses’ aide at Providence Hospital. After entering the Holy Names, her early years in the Community focused on the care of the ill, primarily at the Sisters’ Care Center at Marylhurst.

Yvonne always prepared extensively for her career in nursing. In 1969, she earned a diploma of nursing from Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Spokane, Washington. After a year in the labor and delivery unit at Sacred Heart’s hospital, she fulfilled a long-held dream to serve in the Sisters’ medical mission in the country of Lesotho in southern Africa. Serving there for five years, she returned to Spokane, where she earned a Bachelor of Science from Fort Wright College.

To complete studies in midwifery, Yvonne attended Frontier Nursing Service in Hyden, Kentucky, and earned the Family Nurse Practitioner and Nurse-Midwife credential. She returned to Lesotho to serve another three years. On her return to the United States, she participated in a midwifery internship with Booth Maternity Center in Philadelphia.

With her depth of education, experience, and sense of commitment to the economically poor people, Yvonne has served in community clinics throughout Western Washington including Tacoma, Auburn, Kent, Bellingham, Everett, and Sultan.

For a number of years she served at the CHAS (Community Health Association of Spokane) clinic, an organization of four clinics started to meet healthcare needs of about 60,000 medically uninsured people in the area. Of this ministry Yvonne remarked: “It is indeed intense, sometimes exhausting but fulfilling work. I reach out to, touch and serve the less fortunate—as our Mother foundress did in her lifetime and which is her legacy to us in our lifetime!”

Now fully retired, Sister Yvonne presently resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon, as part of the resident community of Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst.

 

Joyce Houle, SNJM

Born in Troy, New York, Sister Joyce Houle grew up in Cohoes, New York. The daughter of Clarence and Isabella (Hatton) Houle, she is the oldest of the eight Houle children. The family lived down the street from Sacred Heart School, so Joyce met the Sisters of the Holy Names at an early age. Taught by them all through grade school, she attended high school at Academy of the Holy Names (AHN) in nearby Albany.

Joyce began to consider entering religious life in junior high school. When she graduated from AHN in 1953, that same summer she entered the newly established Holy Names novitiate in Rome, New York. During her novitiate, she received the religious name Sister M. Isabel Veronica.

A teacher for many years, Joyce taught her first class at AHN – Rome in 1955. Her next appointment was AHN – Albany from 1958 to 1966, where she taught high school English, Latin, theology and American history. She was also given responsibility for the student boarders which drew on her personal experience as student boarder. A similar assignment followed at AHN – Tampa where she spent three years before returning to school herself to pursue a master’s in religious education at Fordham University.

Moving into her new field, Joyce worked in pastoral ministry at several parishes around New York state offering a listening ear and a spirit of understanding to all she met. Later she brought these same attributes to her roles as director of campus ministry at Russell Sage College in Troy and as a chaplain at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.
In 2004, after courses in spiritual direction in Berkeley, California, Joyce joined the staff of Villa Del Mar, a retreat center run the Holy Names Sisters in Santa Cruz, California. While there, she helped with hospitality and as well as conducting spiritual direction sessions.

When Joyce returned to New York, she turned her ministry efforts to volunteer activities. One of these opportunities was with Mary’s Corner in Cohoes, a non-profit providing necessities to low-income single parent moms and dads for their children, mostly newborns to 4-years-old. Another project close to her heart was the Coalition to End Human Trafficking of Albany. In June 2015 the Interfaith Alliance of New York State honored the Albany Coalition and Joyce was among those honored. Both these ministries she found life giving and still rejoices in the friendships she made and the spirit of collaboration that she felt in her participation with involved, caring communities.

Now retired, Joyce lives at Teresian House in Albany, New York.

 

Eileen Kelleher, SNJM

Sister Eileen Kelleher grew up in Schenectady, New York. Her father Cornelius Kelleher was an accountant for the State of New York; her mother Mary Murphy Kelleher was a nurse at Schenectady’s Ellis Hospital. The middle of the five Kelleher children, Eileen had two older sisters, Maureen, Sheila, and two younger brothers, Brian, Michael.

Eileen got to know the Holy Names Sisters at an early age while attending St. John the Evangelist Grade School. Later she attended the Catholic high school operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph.

In a newspaper interview, Eileen told the reporter: “I always wanted to become a Sister.” When Eileen shared with her mother her desire to enter religious life, her mother immediately responded that it had to be the Holy Names Sisters. Having gone to a Holy Names high school, her mother so loved her experience that she enthusiastically encouraged her daughter to join their Community.

Eileen entered out of high school in 1953 as one of 10 young women who were the first novices in the newly established New York novitiate in Rome. Prior to this, most girls entering from the East Coast spent their novitiate years in the French-speaking Holy Names motherhouse in Montreal, Quebec.

When Eileen completed her novitiate training and having received her religious name, Sister M. Kathleen Michaela, she was assigned to teach in Bradenton, Florida. She was graced with and grateful for wonderful SNJM mentors who helped her in her early days as a teacher. During her years in the classroom, Eileen was a beloved primary teacher, mostly of third grade. While in Florida, she completed a bachelor’s degree in education at Barry University.

When Eileen left formal classroom teaching, she was drawn to parish ministry. Working in the Diocese of Albany, she spent time in parishes from Latham to Averill Park, Glens Falls, Colonie, Schenectady and East Greenbush. Her main focus was religious education, but also included home visitation to the elderly and families.

Some years later, Eileen completed an advanced degree in applied spirituality at the University of San Francisco in support of her ministry and her personal growth. It was a time of change which she describes as opening her up and helping her to be in a place for more depth in faith building.

When her years in parish religious education drew to a close, Eileen turned her attention to a new ministry: as a volunteer visiting fellow senior Sisters in healthcare facilities, making sure that they had the company they deserved. Characteristically, Eileen brought her warm spirit of welcoming presence and depth of hospitality to this ministry as she had to all her previous ministries and relationships.

Eileen is now retired and lives at Teresian House, an Archdiocesan community for elders, in Albany, New York.

 

Carol Lee, SNJM

Sister Carol Lee was born in Ritzville, Washinton, growing up in the midst of her parents, Harold and Doris (Jones) Lee and nine siblings. The family moved from Eastern Washington to Aberdeen on the Washington coast, where her father was a school principal. In her junior year Carol’s family moved to Seattle, where she attended Holy Names Academy and met the Sisters of the Holy Names. She loved her years there so when considering joining a religious community the decision to enter the Holy Names Sisters was not a difficult one.

In 1953, as part of a 43-member group, Carol entered the Sisters’ novitiate at Marylhurst, Oregon, and eventually received the religious name Sister M. Thomas James.

Being raised in a family of teachers and always wanting to be a teacher herself, the Holy Names Community was a perfect fit for her, being a well-respected teaching in the Pacific Northwest.

Carol’s first ministry was as a teacher in SNJM elementary schools in Spokane (Sacred Heart and St. Francis of Assisi), Everett (St. Mary Magdalen), and Seattle (St. Anne’s and St. Joseph’s). She taught grades 5 through 8 along with girls’ sports including volleyball, basketball, and softball.

After 15 years in formal education, an opportunity arose to return to Spokane to work in pastoral ministry working with families at St. Patrick’s, a parish that she loved. This experience taught her a lot about social work and assessing needs.

Eleven years later, the diocese needed a pastor for St. Joseph’s, a small, inner-city parish in Spokane that did not have a full-time priest. Carol was approached by the bishop of Spokane to step in as pastor and help the parish organize itself and develop parish leadership and community.

During this time Carol also founded Our Place, a successful non-profit that continues to provide food, clothing, a hygiene center and other services for their neighbors in need. She spent seven years at St. Joseph’s which turned out to be some of the best years of her life.

Always the explorer, Carol pursued further studies which eventually brought her to Springfield, Oregon, and St. Alice’s Parish for seven years as pastoral minister. Again she was drawn to explore a new way to serve and, having attained certification as a nationally certified Catholic chaplain, she joined the pastoral care team of Sacred Heart Hospital in nearby Eugene.

When she retired from Sacred Heart, Carol still desired to use her skills and became a volunteer chaplain at the Lane County Jail in Eugene. She also joined the Lane County Human Trafficking Task Force, the HIV alliance in Eugene and volunteered with Catholic Community Services.

Now fully retired, Carol resides at Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst, a continuing care retirement community, in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she loves her cat Pounce who is the love of the residents and aides, participates in the life of the community, and pursues her long-time avocation of woodworking.

 

Marilyn Marx, SNJM

Sister Marilyn Marx grew up in Schenectady, New York, daughter of DeWitt and Beulah (Shaffer) Marx.

In 1953, as part of a 10-member group, Marilyn entered the novitiate at Rome, New York. They were the inaugural entry group for the recently established New York Province novitiate. They were a mix of New Yorkers and young women from Key West and Tampa, Florida. Marilyn well remembers them all gathering in Albany and taking the train together to Rome to enter.

Marilyn had some reluctance about entering the Holy Names, as her desire was to be a nurse and the Holy Names Sisters were teachers. In talking with the Sisters, she was assured that after she entered she would teach for a while and then she could train as a nurse. She recalls this with some amusement as it never came to be.

After the novitiate and having received the religious name Sister Mark Marie, she was assigned to teach at St. Michael’s School, Silver Spring, Maryland. Luckily, she said her Sister mentors early in her career were very helpful and understanding. Growing to love the children that she taught, she went on to teach in schools in Washington, DC, Clearwater, Florida, and was a teacher and principal in Tampa, Florida, and Cohoes, New York. Ironically, she went on to get her master’s degree in elementary education, rather than the once wished for nursing degree.

She left formal education with her appointment as Director of the Provincial House in Albany. After serving her six-year term as Director, she was assigned to the finance office for the Academy of the Holy Names which shared facilities with the province offices.

About this time her mother suffered a serious stroke and the Sisters invited Marilyn’s mother to move into their infirmary at the Provincial House. She remained there for almost 17 years and during this time Marilyn continued in the school finance department.

Soon after her mother’s death, Marilyn sought a new experience for herself, and that experience was to do ministry in the Alaskan bush.

At the time there were about a dozen Holy Names Sisters in Alaska. She contacted the two Holy Names in the Fairbanks diocese about the possibility of working in the rural villages there. It worked out that she was able to go to Fairbanks, but her first year was spent in the Diocesan Finance Office. During that year, Sister Eileen Brown who was serving as Chancellor of the Diocese was selected as Provincial Director for the Oregon province.

With Eileen’s departure, the Bishop asked Marilyn to replace her. For next 11 years, Marilyn carried on the duties of Chancellor, dealing with personnel issues, working with the finance board, writing grants for native villages, and visiting villages throughout the diocese, the geographically largest diocese in the United States.

With a change of Bishops, Marilyn chose to resign as Chancellor so that the new Bishop might choose his own people. She again asked about going to the bush and secured a position in the town of Galena. She spent seven years there, and while there, she and Sister Marita Soucy, CSJ, opened a training center for the Athabascans to help them run liturgical services and build leadership in the Catholic community. Reflecting back, she found her years in Galena among the most fulfilling years of her life, treasuring her experience in the bush villages among the people of rural Alaska.

In 2009 at the age of 75 Marilyn knew it was time to retire and made the decision to return to New York. For a time she lived in Albany in a low-income apartment complex as a compassionate presence amid her neighbors.

Marilyn now lives at Mercy Convent, a retirement community for elder Sisters, where she continues as a caring presence. As she ponders the course of her life, she is grateful to the Holy Names Community for the opportunities and education that she has received as a Holy Names Sister.

 

Geraldine Moffat, SNJM

The daughter of Tom and Jean Lonergan Moffat, Geraldine is the oldest of the five Moffat children, all girls. Their family home was located on Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington, not far from Holy Names Academy. This became Geraldine’s school, attending grades 1 through 12 at HNA.

In her high school years, she began to feel a call, a desire to become a Sister of the Holy Names. After high school, Geraldine attended Seattle University for a year. The next year she entered the Sisters’ novitiate at Marylhurst, Oregon, eventually receiving the religious name Sister M. Theresa Jean.

After the novitiate, Geraldine completed her studies to become a teacher which she began before she entered. She was part of the first group to participate in the new Scholasticate program for young Sisters which gave her the opportunity to complete her B.S. in Education before becoming a fulltime teacher.

The next 20 years were spent as an elementary teacher in Holy Names schools across the Pacific Northwest, including schools in Medford and Portland in Oregon, and in Auburn, Seattle, Spokane, and Uniontown in Washington. Interspersed was a three-year appointment working in the Diet Kitchen for the Sisters’ infirmary at Marylhurst.

When Geraldine left the classroom, she continued in the educational setting which she has always enjoyed. For a number of years, she served as secretary for St. Anne’s School in Seattle and then as a secretarial substitute for the Seattle Public School District. Substituting turned into a permanent job when she was hired as Science Material Center Assistant, preparing science kits for classroom teachers.

When her mother died suddenly in 1985, for the next eight years Geraldine took on full-time care for her aging father.

Over the years Geraldine has enjoyed gardening, cooking and reading. With a great curiosity about other countries, she traveled to several, always keeping detailed journals wherever she went and recording what she learned of the customs and cultures of the peoples she met along the way.

Now fully retired, Geraldine resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at Mary’s Woods on the Sisters’ property at Marylhurst where she is “experiencing retirement at its best!”

 

Peggy Pillette, SNJM

As a child, Sister Peggy Pillette lived in the central Willamette Valley, on the central Oregon coast as well as in Portland, with her parents Edward G. and Margaret (Nelson) Pillette and her siblings Thomas, Sherry and Stewart.

After her high school graduation, Peggy spent two years at Marylhurst College south of Portland, before travelling the short distance across the forested ravine to enter the Sisters’ novitiate at Convent of the Holy Names. During this time she received the religious name Sister M. Ruth Margaret and later completed her BA in Sociology at Marylhurst College.

Her first years of ministry were spent in secondary education as a librarian and teacher. She served at high schools in Oregon including at St. Mary’s, Portland and Sacred Heart Academy, Salem, and in Washington at Holy Names Academy, Spokane. During this time she completed a master’s degree in library sciences at Rosary College.

Little did Peggy know that her 21 years in high school education and a library science degree would prepare her for her next ministry, 14 years in Fairbanks, Alaska. While there, she served as diocesan resource coordinator and director of the religious education office for the Diocese of Fairbanks, the geographically largest diocese in the United States. Over time Peggy was able to experience the vastness of the diocese and witness the unique challenges that shape the church in Alaska. These were times and encounters she cherishes, especially the welcoming spirit of the rural villages and the Alaskan people.

During her later years in Alaska, Peggy began to feel a call to work with marginalized people inspired by the SNJM documents of the times. On returning to Oregon, she tested the waters volunteering at several nonprofits working with very poor persons in Portland. She eventually joined Outreach Ministry in Burnside as Member Services Coordinator. Her responsibilities included distributing checks or cash allowances to clients and keeping accurate accounts, storing and making available medications to clients, reminding people of their appointments and often discussing treatment with health care personnel. Her attentiveness was a well-appreciated gift to staff and clients.

In 1998 Peggy was honored as a distinguished alumna by Marylhurst University for her service to society, particularly for her ministry at Outreach Ministries. Peggy’s compassion and understanding of how people grow offered a step up to those who found themselves on the bottom rung of society. Peggy once said of her ministry at Outreach that “it’s the call of the Gospel. Christ loved the poor and recognized the poor for their goodness and their needs.”

Peggy now resides at Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst, a continuing care retirement community in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she continues to bring a gracious, inclusive presence.

 

Joan Dixon, SNJM

Sister Joan Dixon is the oldest of nine children born to William and Emma Marie (Smilanic) Dixon. Her early childhood was spent in Englewood, Colorado, where she says she developed her sense of humor and her appreciation of great teachers.

In her pre-teens, the family moved to Portland, Oregon, settling in Holy Redeemer Parish where she met Holy Names Sisters for the first time.

Her high school years were spent at St. Mary’s Academy where she graduated in 1953. Feeling a call to religious life, that summer Joan entered the Sisters’ Novitiate at Marylhurst, eventually receiving the religious name Sister M. Lawrence Damian.

Joan’s first years of ministry were in elementary education. She taught upper grades in SNJM schools in Oregon, including St. Mary’s, Eugene; Star of the Sea, Astoria; Sacred Heart, Medford; St. Francis, Bend; and in Portland at St. Thomas More and Holy Redeemer. For three years she was a school counselor meeting with students from Woodlawn and Holy Redeemer elementary schools and David Douglas and Central Catholic high schools.

In 1971 Joan joined the faculty of the Department of Education at Marylhurst College and served as Admissions Department liaison to Japan and Hong Kong. When the women’s college was discontinued in 1974, she returned to elementary education as principal of St. Thomas More.

Leaving Portland for Spokane in 1976, Joan assumed the position of Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Spokane in charge of curriculum and personnel issues. Later she was named Diocesan Superintendent of Schools, responsible for policy development, finance, and school board matters. During this time she also began adjunct teaching in Gonzaga University’s teacher education program.

In 1982, following her six-year stint in the Diocesan Education Office, Joan joined the Gonzaga faculty fulltime. She taught administration and curriculum in the School of Education’s graduate program. She spent much of her time working north of the border in Gonzaga’s graduate programs in Alberta where she had a special interest in serving the First Nation students.

Joan completed a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership during this time and became chair of the Master of Arts in Leadership and Administration in the School of Education. Her expertise as master teacher, principal, counselor, school superintendent, as well as her generous spirit and ready wit, made her much sought after as a consultant.

In 1990 Joan earned Outstanding Teacher of the Year at Gonzaga in recognition of her teaching skills and the embodiment of what the students said they aspired to be as teachers. In 2014 she was made an Honorary Citizen of Calgary, Alberta, and was awarded the “White Hat” in recognition of her Calgarian spirit of generosity, hospitality. and genuine fun. Joan cherishes the many mentors in her life, and those she has been able to mentor in her work. “I believe and I know that it is through education that our future can be assured,” she says.

Following her semi-retirement from Gonzaga, Joan remained in Spokane where she became a volunteer at Our Care Community Outreach, a non-profit addressing the needs of Spokane’s West Central neighborhood by providing emergency resources. She also served on their Board of Directors.

Since August 2023, Joan has resided in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst, adding her spirit and humor to the resident community there.