Sister Margaret Mary (Peggy) Keegan, S.S.N.D., who taught school for many years in New Jersey and Baltimore before becoming a school librarian, died of respiratory failure on June 14 at Maria Health Care Center in Baltimore.
She was 81 and was celebrating her 60th jubilee this summer as a professed member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
Margaret Mary Keegan was born in Brooklyn. In 1950, at age 18, she graduated from the School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Aspiranture in Fort Lee, N.J., and two months later entered the congregation from her home parish of St. Anselm, Bay Ridge. In 1952, as a novice, she was given the religious name Mary Auxilia. She professed her first vows in 1953 and her final vows in 1959. Years later, she resumed using her baptismal name and was commonly known as Sister Peggy.
She taught in schools in Camden, N.J., and Baltimore, before becoming a school librarian in 1974. As a librarian, Sister Peggy also served at schools in Baltimore. In 1987, she was assigned to Loyola-Notre Dame Library, the joint library serving Loyola University Maryland and Notre Dame of Maryland University.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated June 19 in the chapel at Villa Assumpta, Baltimore. Burial was at Villa Maria Cemetery in Glen Arm, Md.
Sister Julianne Spiess, S.S.N.D., who was a Catholic school educator for more than 30 years before adopting a ministry of parish outreach, died of congestive heart failure at Lourdes Health Care Center in Wilton, Conn., June 16.
She was 80 and marking her 60th jubilee this summer as a professed member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
Julianne Olga Spiess was born in Brooklyn. She attended St. Matthias School, Ridgewood, where she first met the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She professed her first vows in 1953 and her final vows in 1959 and was given the religious name Mary Rita.
She taught elementary school in Camden, N.J.; Cumberland, Md.; Baltimore; and Philadelphia.
In 1971, she earned a bachelor’s degree in education from what was then the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and later a master’s in counseling from Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J.
She spent a year as a counselor-consultant with the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 1976-77, before being named a high school guidance counselor in Baltimore, 1977-84.
In 1988, she returned to the Diocese of Brooklyn to serve at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Ridgewood, where she coordinated parish outreach, including service to seniors, from 1988 to 1997. She also coordinated parish outreach at St. John of God in Central Islip, L.I., 1997-2006, until moving to Bohemia, L.I., where she was in community service to St. John Nepomucene until only months before her death.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated at the chapel at Villa Notre Dame in Wilton. Burial followed at St. Mary Cemetery in Bethel, Conn.
Sister Julianne is survived by three sisters, Veronica Cesareo of Lakewood, N.J., Rita Roussey of Woodbridge, N.J., and Frances Merz of Roslyn, L.I.; and a brother, Ted Spiess of Marietta, Ga.