The third maiden aunt to be
considered is Alice Josephine Connery. Alice, named after her mother, was the
fourth child and third daughter of Michael and Alice Fleming Connery. She was
born on March 29, 1899.
Like her older sisters, Mary and
Kathy, Alice attended boarding school in Adrian, Michigan. Although the 1910
census shows that for some time she was living in Victor, Colorado with her
Aunt and Uncle Mary and Gus Heisen.[i]
Uncle Gus was a miner in a gold mine. On Friday nights Uncle Gus, a Lutheran,
would drill her on her catechism lessons before her Saturday classes. Years later Alice would reminisce about
running down the hill to meet Uncle Gus on his way home from work. It is
possible that Alice was in Colorado for allergies, since in later years she
went to the North Woods during the “hay fever season” in the Midwest.
Alice graduated from St Joseph
Academy on June 16, 1918 and then worked for the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad until February 14, 1919 when she entered the novitiate of the Sisters
of St Dominic in Adrian, Michigan. During her postulate she taught elementary grades
at St Joseph Academy. After receiving the habit on August 22, 1919 along with
the name Sister Marie Camilla, she was sent to teach junior high for a year at
Our Lady of Sorrows in Detroit, MI. Her canonical year was difficult due to a
succession of five novice mistresses but she made her first profession of vows
on August 10, 1921.
Now her teaching career would begin
in earnest. Her first appointment was to teach middle grades and freshman year
of high school at Visitation School in Detroit for five years, then it was on
to Queen of Angels School in Chicago as a junior high teacher. In the 1930’s
she taught high school at Mount St Mary Academy in St Charles, IL. During her
tenure at Mt St Mary’s her youngest sister Betty was one of her students. The
story is told that she was known as “Sister Mary Pussyfoot” because she always
caught her rosary on something, breaking it, and wore rubber heels on her
shoes, so nobody could hear her coming!
Mixed with her teaching career,
Sister Marie Camilla studied during the summers at Detroit Teachers College, De
Paul University in Chicago and St John University in Toledo, Ohio. In 1929, she
received her BS degree from St John.
She accepted an appointment to St
Killian in Chicago as principal/superior but found that the position was not
for her, so she returned to Mt St Mary, where she helped in the library as well
as taught. During the summers, she continued her education earning a M Ed from
De Paul University in 1942, and a BA in Library Science from Rosary College in
River Forest, IL. She also took a summer class in theology taught by Dominican
Fathers, adding a certificate to her collection of degrees.
In 1950 and again in 1956 she made a
pilgrimage to Rome with her Mother and sisters. They had a private audience
with the Pope and visited family in Ireland.
The late 1960s and early 1970s
brought change to the Church and religious life. It was a time when nuns could
choose whether to wear the traditional habit or not, a time when they
could choose to return to their original names and a time when many were
encouraged to accept employment outside of their order. Sister Marie Camilla
retained her habit, although a modified one, and the religious name but she did
accept the librarianship at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, Fl a coed
school. After 40 years in all-girls schools it was quite a change. She spent 2
years there.
In 1974, at 75 years old, she
“retired” to St Helen in Vero Beach, FL where she spent her time doing
volunteer work. She even took a behind the counter position at the St Vincent
de Paul Store, which she declared “one of the most interesting experiences of
my life.”
In 1985 Sister Marie Camilla moved
into Maria Hall at the Adrian Dominican Motherhouse where she would remain
until her death April 16, 1995 having served 74 years as a religious sister.
She is buried in the congregation cemetery in Adrian.[ii]
She is remembered as a graceful
always happy woman who was a lover of nature. She was a gentle artistic woman
who loved fine and delicate things. I am
very glad that she was my aunt.
[i]
1910 US Federal Census; Census Place: Victor Ward 3, Teller, Colorado; Roll:
T624_125; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0187; FHL microfilm: 1374138
[ii]
Most biographical material taken from her autobiography written in 1978 and on
file in the Adrian Dominican Archives
