Sister Alphonse Louise Gendron, OP, was welcomed home by God on November 20, 2023. She was 93 years old and had devoted 75 years to religious life as a Dominican sister of Amityville.
After graduating P.S. 140 in Queens, Helen attended Dominican Commercial High School where she met the Dominican Sisters.
After graduation from high school, Helen entered the Amityville Congregation on Sept. 10, 1948. The following August 4, she and 42 other young women were clothed with the Dominican habit and began their novitiate year. They were given the Bleeding Heart as their set flower, and Helen was given her name — Sister Alphonse Louise.
August 5, 1950 was the day of First Vows for Sister Alphonse Louise and her set. The following month, they were sent on their first assignments and began their journeys as professed religious women.
Sister Alphonse went to St. Joseph in Long Island City and dedicated 33 years to teaching in elementary schools in Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. During that time, she spent weekends working with children with special needs. This background gave Sister Alphonse the experience to begin an Exceptional Children’s Program at her next assignment in St. Ignatius School in Hicksville.
In addition to ministering in elementary schools, this hardworking Dominican sister spent a number of years in St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School, Queen of the Rosary Academy, and Kellenberg Memorial High School as a teacher and librarian.
In 1995, Sister Alphonse moved to Queen of the Rosary Motherhouse. She continued to minister in a variety of ways including taking charge of the mailroom, helping in the Advancement Office, and volunteering in the Opening Word Program for women who wanted to learn English. She often collected donations for those who had experienced a serious, unfortunate event.
This brave, prayerful, patriotic, and compassionate woman of God will be missed by many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, cousins, friends, and her Dominican sisters.
The funeral for Sister Alphonse was held Nov. 27 at the Motherhouse.
The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated after a prayer service. Interment followed in St. Dominic Cemetery.
