SISTER THERESA NIGHTINGALE, OP 1930 2022
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SISTER THERESA NIGHTINGALE, OP 1930 – 2022 “… [A] gentle woman who loved children and her ministry of teaching both children and adults.” This was how Sister Peggy Coyne, Adrian Crossroads Chapter Prioress, described Sister Theresa Nightingale at Sister Theresa’s wake service. The oldest child of Lawrence and Christina (Schmidt) Nightingale entered the world on November 19, 1930, in West Terre Haute, Indiana, and was baptized Theresa Mae. Seven more children would be born to the couple over time: five brothers (Joseph, William, Gerald, Virgil, and Richard) and two sisters (Marjorie and Florence). Lawrence was the fourth oldest of fourteen children, and when he was just nine years old, he quit school in order to work and help support the family. He worked in the coal mine located at the Sisters of Providence motherhouse in Terre Haute. He and Christina met as teenagers and married when he was twenty and Christina was nineteen. According to Sister Theresa’s biography, Lawrence’s family was the only Catholic one in West Terre Haute and all the other families belonged to the Baptist church – which was pastored by Christina’s father. Lawrence soon moved to Detroit to find a better-paying job and went to work at the Hudson Motor Car assembly plant, sending money home to Christina, who remained in Indiana with her parents. Not long after Theresa’s birth, mom and baby joined Lawrence in Detroit. The family lived in Guardian Angels Parish, and it was there that Theresa began school in 1935. When she was seven years old, the family – now with four children – moved to five acres of land Lawrence purchased in Utica, north of Detroit. This not only allowed for a home that could be built onto as the family expanded, but gave them space to grow produce and raise cows, and even make an attempt at growing peanuts. It also turned out, coincidentally, to be closer to where Lawrence eventually worked; when the Hudson Motor Car company ceased car production due to World War II, it operated the U.S. Naval Ordnance plant in Center Line, about a half-hour south of Utica. The family attended St. Lawrence Church in Utica and Theresa went to the parish school, which was staffed by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. According to her biography, her family worked out a trade with the Sisters when certain goods were rationed during the war. The children always needed shoes and Christina needed sugar for canning, whereas the family did not need their meat and dairy coupons because they had their own livestock. And so, the Sisters gave the Nightingales their shoe and sugar ration coupons, and the family gave the Sisters their meat and dairy coupons. Page 1 of 7
When it came time for high school, because St. Lawrence did not have a high school Theresa went on to Utica High School for a year and then was educated by the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters at St. Mary High School in Mount Clemens, Michigan, for a year and a half. At that point, she dropped out in order to help her father, who had just opened his own service station. She told him she would give him a year and then was going to enter the convent, and her plan came to be – except that she originally thought she would become a Maryknoll Sister because they were missionaries and she wanted to see the world. As it turned out, however, she chose the Adrian Dominican Sisters because of her experience with them at St. Lawrence and entered the Congregation in June 1947. She was received as a novice that December and given the religious name Sister Lawrence Christine in honor of her parents. After completing her high school education at St. Joseph Academy in 1948 and finishing her canonical novitiate year in December of that year, she remained in Adrian to begin her college education at Siena Heights College (University). A short teaching assignment at St. John School in Albion, Michigan, followed in the first half of the 1949-1950 school year. Then, in December 1949, she was sent to St. John Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan, to serve as a housekeeper, and remained there until late 1952 when the need arose for a teacher at Blessed Sacrament School in Toledo, Ohio. Sister Theresa would remain a teacher for the rest of her life in active ministry. After Blessed Sacrament School (1952-1956), she went to St. Paul School, Owosso, Michigan (1956-1962); St. Lawrence School, Detroit (1962-1967); St. Brigid School, Detroit (1967- 1970); and the combined Presentation/Our Lady of Victory schools, also in Detroit (1970- 1971). She completed her bachelor’s degree, with a biology major, from Siena Heights in 1959. Her father died in 1968, while Christina passed away in 2002. In 1971, Sister Theresa left Michigan for Florida, where she would remain for almost fifteen years. Her first stop in the Sunshine State was St. Helen School in Vero Beach, and it was here that she met the Sister with whom she would share ministry and life for more than fifty years: Sister June Mary Deswysen, the school’s principal. “We always got along since we had different skills and talents,” said Sister June Mary in her remembrance of her dear friend at Sister Theresa’s wake service. “Instead of competing with each other we could allow our talents to reflect off each other, creating a whole that was better than either of us alone could have achieved.” Sister Theresa taught at St. Helen School for a year, followed by a year (1972-1973) at Blessed Sacrament School, Tallahassee; three years (1973-1976) at St. James School, Orlando; and three years (1976-1979) at St. Charles Borromeo School, Port Charlotte. At Page 2 of 7
that point, she and Sister June Mary, seeing the need in the area for remedial education, began what they called the Dominican Tutoring Service. The program began in their rented home’s garage, which they converted into two small classrooms, and later moved into a storefront. Their first student’s father helped with financial and other needs, and the two Sisters also supported themselves by baking and decorating cakes, mowing lawns, and doing housekeeping. As time went on, the tutoring expanded to include math and reading help for adults. Sisters Theresa and June Mary operated their tutoring service until 1985, when they returned to Adrian for a few months and then went to live in Detroit. Both Sisters taught at Our Lady Queen of Peace School in Harper Woods, Michigan, for a year (1986-1987) and then returned to Florida to teach at St. Ann School in West Palm Beach. They moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1993, where Sister June Mary became principal at Asheville Catholic School and Sister Theresa taught an enrichment program geared toward both ends of the educational spectrum: students who needed remedial help and gifted students who benefited from having additional opportunities beyond their regular classwork. The Sisters then alternated between Michigan and Florida for a number of years: St. Clair Shores, Michigan, from 1994 to 2001; West Palm Beach again from 2001 to 2006, where Sister Theresa served for a time as a substitute teacher and Sister June Mary ministered at Rosarian Academy; and then Sterling Heights, Michigan (2006-2008) and Clinton Township, Michigan (2008-2009). They returned to Adrian in 2009 to reside at the Dominican Life Center. Sister Theresa died at the ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital in Adrian on April 24, 2022. She was ninety-one years old and in her seventy-fourth year of religious profession. In her remembrance at the wake, Sister June Mary recalled her longtime friend’s fascination with meteorology (“I knew when it was raining only when I went outside and got wet. Theresa knew about the weather system that was bringing the rain, how long it would last, and when the next system would come in”), how much she loved Florida’s beaches and enjoyed playing cards, her skill at home repair and lawn care, and how she was loved by students, parents, and fellow teachers alike. “Anyone fortunate enough to have had Theresa as a friend is fortunate indeed,” Sister June Mary said in conclusion. “Thank you, Theresa, for being my friend for all of these years.” Trudy McSorley, an Adrian Dominican Associate, preached the funeral homily. Theresa was a quiet, reflective woman whose heart yearned for her Beloved who she committed her life to 74 years ago. [She] spent many of her early years on the family acreage. There she learned to care for the Page 3 of 7
land and the animals and vegetables the family grew there that would sustain them. Perhaps it was there that she learned to value the quiet and simple life that would become so much a part of her nature. Trudy noted that Sister Theresa had become especially drawn in her teaching ministry to children who needed special educational attention. Whether here, or in Florida, where she spent many years, Theresa’s mission was ‘let us try to answer the greatest need!’ so it was to these children and families she felt called and was determined to minister. And so, the cover of our worship aid today reflects the Gospel reading and Theresa’s mission: “Let the little children come to me. … Do not stop them!” and then the assurance – and perhaps this is what drew Theresa to this ministry – “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs!” Page 4 of 7
Left: The future Sister Theresa Nightingale at the age of 20 months. Right: The Nightingale family in 1959 Left: The future Sister Theresa at the age of 15. Right: Sister Theresa Nightingale attends the Special Olympics Field Day sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit, May 1987. Page 5 of 7
Sister Theresa Nightingale roasts chestnuts with her kindergarten class at St. Ann School, West Palm Beach, 1991. Left: Sisters Jeanne Burns, left, and Theresa Nightingale. Right: Members of the Peace Mission Group in 2003 are, back row, from left, Sisters Leonor Esnard, Joan Petz, Joan Leo Kehn, Elizabeth Ross, and Lorraine Sinn, and front row, form left, Sisters Frances Madigan, Theresa Nightingale, and June Mary Deswysen. Page 6 of 7
Members of the 2017 Double-Diamond December Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Shirley Mary Heymes, Patricia Siemen (Prioress), Jeanne Burns, Shirley Thielk, Mary Saynay, and Marcine Klemm and front row, from left, Sisters Theresa Nightingale, Margaret Lane, Kathleen Therese McCann, Janet Persyk, and Cyrilla Zarek. Page 7 of 7
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