Sister Kate is well known for her smile and her love for children. This remains a big part of her life as she celebrates her 75th Jubilee.
Kate was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 2, 1930, the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, and she has been a joyful angel all her life. She was taught by the School Sisters of St. Francis at St. Catherine Parish School. Following in the footsteps of her sister, Sister Joselyn, she entered the community. When she was received in 1950, she was given the name Sister Frances.
Love for the community has always been Sister Kate’s motivation to service. She remembers when she was called to the office of the Mother General as a professed sister and 22-year-old student at Alverno College. Mother told her, “We are sending you to Schiller Park.” In those days you didn’t ask questions, but Kate asked permission to ask just one: “Would you please tell me where that is?” Mother told her that it is a very nice suburban area in Illinois near O’Hare Airport.
“I so longed to know what my assignment would be,” Sister Kate said. “Just as I was leaving, Mother said, ‘Oh, by the way, you will be a teacher.’ She gently closed the door and I found myself skipping and singing down the corridor!”
That was the beginning of nearly 20 years as a teacher and principal at St. Beatrice Parish.
Her next years were spent in service to the community as Provincial of the Chicago Province for three terms when enormous changes in the Church and in the community were taking place. One sister who knew her then told her, “Our Chicago days were exciting, risky, challenging, hopeful, and full of a lightness of spirit. You brought us together and supported our dreams and our questions. You valued women, each in her individual journey, maturing during those Chicago Province days.”
Another sister fondly shared that “Sister Kate is always smiling, filled with love and twinkling eyes while giving a cheery ‘Hello!’”
As the years moved along, Sister Kate served at Alvernia High School; as director of Howard Community Center; as a pastoral minister in the Chicago Archdiocese; and eventually as youth care supervisor at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines. When Sister Kate celebrated her 70th Jubilee five years ago, a sister told her, “Many of us knew the passionate love you had for children, especially for the newborn babies and children who came to Maryville from parents with AIDS or drug addiction.” Sister Kate said, “I love spoiling children, and I don’t believe you can spoil a child too much!”
In 1992, Sister Kate began her service as President of our international congregation. For eight years, she often traveled to the countries where our sisters serve. When her congregational duties took her to India, Germany, and Central America, she found children and brought them love even when she could not communicate in their language. She used smiles and music to communicate!
This service was followed by years as our community’s development director and director of donor outreach. After that, she continued to volunteer for the International Office of Mission Advancement and as an advocate for immigrants who are being detained and may be deported.
Sister Kate has lived her vocation ministering to others with compassion and devotion, always there for the needs of the times. She continues to serve with a smile as she enjoys her days and prays for everyone at Our Lady of the Angels. Angels continue to watch over her!