Sister M. Daria McGinn, IHM, of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died on Dec. 27 at Our Lady of Peace Residence in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at age 104.
She was born on Dec. 11, 1918, in Jamaica, Queens. She entered the IHM Congregation on Sept. 8, 1938, made her temporary profession of vows on May 8, 1941, and her final profession of vows on Aug. 2, 1944.
She was a graduate of St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay. Sister Daria received a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education/English from Marywood College and a Master of Arts degree in education/social science from the University of Detroit.
Sister Daria served as a teacher at St. Ephrem Elementary School in Brooklyn from 1963 to 1970.
Interment was at St. Catherine’s Cemetery in Moscow, Pennsylvania. The funeral mass and graveside service were held in private.
Sister Ellen Patrice Hopkins, OP, was called into eternal life on Jan. 5 by the God she loved and served so well for 73 years as an Amityville Dominican.
On June 25, 1928, Ellen Carney Hopkins and John Edward Hopkins welcomed their baby daughter, Patricia, into their home in Good Shepherd Parish in Manhattan. Eventually, the family moved to St. Ann’s Parish in Flushing, where she and her brother John were raised.
After graduating from Dominican Commercial High School in 1946, she worked as a secretary for three years. On Sept. 8, 1949, she entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Sisters of St. Dominic.
She was invested on Aug. 4, 1950, and became known as Sister Ellen Patrice. Shortly after celebrating her first profession on Aug. 6, 1951, she began her lifelong profession of education. Sister Ellen Patrice taught in St. Catherine of Sienna in St. Albans, St. Kilian in Farmingdale, St. Aloysius in Ridgewood, St. Margaret in Middle Village, and Incarnation in Queens Village. She also served as principal of Incarnation School for 13 years.
She also served as a dedicated member of the Irish Night Committee.
In 2019 the four sisters, including Sister Ellen Patrice, who lived in Incarnation Convent moved to the Motherhouse in Amityville, New York.
Sister Ellen Patrice Hopkins will be missed by her nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and Dominican sisters.
Funeral services took place in St. Albert Chapel in Amityville on Jan. 10, followed by the Mass of Christian Burial.
Sister Elizabeth (Betty) O’Brien, CSJ, (formerly Sister Elizabeth Gertrude), a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph for 66 years, died on Dec. 10 in Maria Regina Residence at age 84.
Elizabeth grew up in St. Martin of Tours parish. After graduating from Bishop McDonnell High School, Betty entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1956. In later years, Sister Betty continued her formal education, earning a BS in Elementary Education from Brentwood College and an MS in Elementary Education from State University at Potsdam. These prepared her for the 20 years she spent bringing her talents to children from second grade to eighth grade in schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, including Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Nativity of the Blessed Lord, St. Teresa of Avila and Holy Spirit. In later years, she used her talents as a bursar at St. Joseph’s College and Our Lady of Perpetual Help High School.
Father Thomas Poth celebrated her Mass of Christian Burial on Dec. 14 in Sacred Heart Chapel, Brentwood. Her burial followed in Calvary Cemetery, Brentwood.
Sister Therese Mary Jayne, O.P., (Sister Mary Edmund) died on Dec. 29. She was 97 years old and had served as a Sister of St. Dominic for 78 years.
Born in Brooklyn on July 29, 1925, Therese and her family later moved to Bayside, N.Y. They were members of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish.
After high school at Villa Maria in Watermill, New York, Therese entered the Novitiate in Amityville on February 4, 1944. On Aug. 4 of the same year, she was clothed in the Dominican habit and received her religious name, Sister Mary Edmund.
Sister Therese pronounced her first vows on Aug. 8, 1945, and final vows on Aug. 19, 1948.
Sister Therese earned a bachelor’s degree at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, and a Master’s at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Her six decades of ministry in education began at St. Joseph, Long Island City, where she taught in the parish grammar school. In 1948 she was missioned to Puerto Rico, initially teaching elementary grades and then high school.
After 15 years in Puerto Rico, Sister Therese returned to the mainland to teach science for the next 43 years at St. Agnes Academic High School in College Point, Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville, and back to St. Agnes. During these years of teaching, she lived in community at John XXIII Hall, Amityville; St. Pancras, Glendale, New York, and Siena Convent, College Point. In 2006, Sister Therese retired and moved to the Motherhouse in Amityville.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held in St. Albert Chapel at Queen of the Rosary Motherhouse on Jan. 3, followed by interment in the sisters’ cemetery.
