Recent Deaths

Sister Bridie Kelly
1931–2019

Sister Bridie Kelly, 88, died peacefully on May 14, 2019, at Addolorata Villa, Wheeling, IL. She was born in Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland, on March 3, 1931, to Edward and Norah (Kelly) Kelly, the second of seven children, and received the baptismal name Brigid. She immigrated to the United States in 1948 and entered the Servants of Mary convent in Ladysmith, WI, in 1950. She became a naturalized citizen in 1960.

She attended elementary and secondary schools in Ireland and pursued further education at Our Lady of Sorrows High School and Mount Senario College in Ladysmith and the Theological Institute at St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI.

Sister Bridie taught kindergarten through third grade for over forty years in schools staffed by the Servants of Mary in Carteret, NJ, Chicago, IL, Wheeling, WV, and Hillside, IL, where she also served as an extended day care teacher and teacher’s aide. She volunteered at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, IL, as a eucharistic minister.

Her enduring spirit was great as she coped with the illness of her last few years, an illness that curbed the walking that she loved but in a sense created a pathway for her new life with God.

She is survived by four sisters, Kathleen (late Jack) Shanley, Mary (Bill) Duggan, Nora (late John) Doherty, and Margaret (John) Callaghan, many nieces, nephews, and cousins, and the Servite Sisters, with whom she shared life for 69 years.

She was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, Frank (Mary) Kelly and Thomas (Eileen) Kelly.

Father Timothy Kremen, OSM, presided at the Mass of Christian Burial at Addolorata Villa on May 18, with burial at All Saints Mausoleum, Des Plaines, IL.