Sister Antoinette Marie Keyes, CSJ, entered into Eternal Life on Oct. 24, 2021. A Sister for 71 years, she grew up in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Queens with her Irish-born parents and her sister Mary Josephine. After graduating from Saint Michael’s Academy in Manhattan, Antoinette entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph and was given the name Sister Mary Assumpta.
She earned a BA from St. Francis College and embarked on a life-long ministry as a primary grade teacher. Sister taught in Saint Teresa of Avila in Brooklyn and then in Ponce, Puerto Rico at Colegio San Conrado and Colegio Santa Teresita. Back in the Diocese of Brooklyn, she taught at Saint Ann’s in Flushing and for the next 20 years at Immaculate Conception of the BVM better known as Saint Mary’s, Maujer Street, Brooklyn.
In 1981, Sister Antoinette moved to Most Precious Blood in Long Island City where she served as a Minister of Communion and continued as a dedicated First Grade teacher as well as being involved in the after-school program and the Math Program.
Sister’s love and dedication to her Sisters, to all in her ever-changing neighborhood, to her Irish roots, and family played an important part in her daily life of prayer and compassionate service as a Sister of Saint Joseph.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated for Sister Antoinette in Sacred Heart Chapel on October 28 followed by interment in Calvary Cemetery in Brentwood.
Deacon Clemenceau H. Pierre-Antoine died Friday, Oct. 29, 2021. Deacon Pierre-Antoine was born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti on August 4, 1949. The seventh of nine children, he attended elementary school and secondary school in Haiti, Ecole A. Firmin, Cap-Haitien, Annexe Lycee T. Louverture, Port Au Prince, and Lycee Toussaint Louverture Port-au-Prince, graduating in 1970.
He then attended college at Faculte des Sciences, Port-au-Prince, earning a bachelor of Civil Engineering degree in 1974. Worked for four years in Haiti and then was hired by a German company where he remained for 16 years. After Germany, he moved back to Haiti and then to the United States. Deacon Pierre-Antoine worked most of his life as a civil engineer.
He was ordained as a Permanent Deacon by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio on May 19, 2007, and assigned to Incarnation parish, Queens Village. In 2020, he was also assigned to St. Gerard Majella parish in Queens Village.
Of his call to the Diaconate, Pierre-Antoine said: “It’s the call by the Holy Spirit, the desire to serve my Lord entirely, to show Him gratitude for all the graces He has given to me, to develop and share my spiritual talents with others and to serve the Church.”
He is survived by his wife, Gerarde Pierre-Antoine, and their daughter, Christina.
A funeral service was held Saturday, Nov. 6 at Incarnation R.C. Church. Burial followed at St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.
