Keva Crum, the oldest child of Felicia Kelly-Crum. There will be a Celebration of Life-

Friday, August 5th, at Historic St. Francis Xavier, 1501 E. Oliver St. 10am family hour, 10:30 service with Mass, repast immediately following in St. Francis’s Hall.

You can reach out to Felicia by her cell phone (443 955 3203).

Keva was 30 years old.

Funeral Arrangements for Ms. Diane (Hardy) Bazemore: daughter of sherman and rita hardy

Viewing: Thursday, June 21 1:00 pm - 7:00 pm

March Life Tribute Center - Randallstown

5616 Old Court Rd. 

Randallstown, MD. 21133

Wake:

Friday, June 22 10:00 am - 10:30 am 

March Life Tribute Center - Randallstown

5616 Old Court Rd. 

Randallstown, MD. 21133

Service: 

Friday, June 22 10:30 am

March Life Tribute Center - Randallstown

5616 Old Court Rd. 

Randallstown, MD. 21133

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Rita Barbara Walsh was born In Malden, Massachusetts, a few days after Christmas in 1928, and called Bobbie by her family. She wrote in her autobiography that her mother wanted her to wait until after Christmas to be born so that she could celebrate Christmas at home with her two daughters, Marie and Margie.  Her parents, Joseph Henry Walsh and Mary Agnes Cotter, natives of Boston and Malden respectively, had Rita baptized at Immaculate Conception, Malden, their parish church.  Eventually the family numbered eight girls and one boy who died at 20 months.

All the sisters attended Immaculate Conception School and Girls’ Catholic High School, both staffed by SSNDs. In 1940 Rita was confirmed by Archbishop Cushing at a nearby parish. At the end of her junior year, “my very good friend Anna Mae O’Donnell, a senior, told me that she was entering the School Sisters in Baltimore, something I also wanted to do. Anna Mae wrote to my mother telling her of my desire, but my mother said I was too young. She spoke to my grandmother who was more receptive, and who told my mother to let me enter because if it was not the life for me I would soon know it.” So, on August 28, 1946, Anna Mae and Rita left for the Candidature.

“Since I had not completed high school and had asked to be a house sister, I spent my first year as a cook in Griffin, Georgia, a newly opened mission. My superiors reviewed my high school transcript and decided that I would be a teacher, so I spent the second year of candidature completing my high school courses at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore. Maybe my cooking skills were lacking,” she wrote with tongue in cheek, “but I was most happy in Georgia.”

Entering the novitiate on July 16, 1948, Rita became Sister Mary Orontia. First vows followed on August 3, 1949, and final profession on August 3, 1955. At her first mission, St. Ann’s in Baltimore, she taught grades 2, 3 and 4, for 16 years, 1949 to 1965.  After school and during summers, she studied Elementary Education at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Of these years, she wrote, “It was difficult to be so far away from my family when my father became ill, but I was able to visit him before he died in 1962.”

In 1965, Sister Orontia was missioned to St. Peter School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she completed 40 years, 33 of them as a teacher of math and religion in grades 3 to 6, “two subjects that I thoroughly enjoyed.” For 15 of these years she also taught religious education, and from 1996 to 2004, computer, an interest she picked up when teaching fifth grade.

Of these years, Sister Orontia wrote, “I was always so grateful to be involved in family activities and to be present at our many weddings and parties.” She enjoyed many Red Sox games with her nephew, who was always able to acquire good seats at Fenway Park. One year on Nuns’ Day at the park, her picture appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe to her surprise and embarrassment and the delight of family and friends. During her later years at St. Peter’s School, Sister Orontia lived in the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Medford. 

One of Sister Orontia’s treasured possessions is a prayer signed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, acquired when she met her in Rome on her Jubilee trip. “It is now a relic.”

On March 5, 2005, St. Peter’s School held a Gala Event at which Sister Orontia was guest of honor; it celebrated her 40 years ministering in the school. All SSNDs who had served at St. Peter’s since it opened its doors 104 years earlier were also honored and thanked. On September 14, 2013, a special Liturgy of Thanksgiving celebrated Sister Orontia’s retirement after 48 years at the school.  “This was such a memorable occasion, although a bit overwhelming and humbling for me,” she wrote in her autobiography, the last paragraph of which reads:

                       After much prayer I made the decision to come to Villa Notre Dame

                       in July 2014. It was a good decision and I have loved being at the

                       Villa and now here in Lourdes with my SSND family.  I have enjoyed

                       my life thus, and continue to live it with a spirit of peace and joy.

Sister Elaine Polcari had become friendly with Sister Orontia when she was studying theology and both were living at St. Peter’s Convent. Later, Sister Elaine helped with her decision to leave Medford and go to Wilton.

After a very short illness, Sister Orontia died peacefully at Lourdes on the morning of June 3, 2018. Sister Elaine presided over her wake service on the evening of June 5 in the chapel at Villa Notre Dame. She recalled that when they were all at home, Sister Orontia’s mother had assigned an older sister to care for a younger one. Rita looked after Miriam; years later Miriam and her family were very faithful to Sister Orontia as she grew older and needed care. Miriam Murray, Joanne Visconte, and Patricia Comerford were present at the wake and funeral, with many other members of the family.  Orontia’s devoted nephew, Frank Murray, of the Red Sox tickets, spoke humorously and movingly of his relationship with the aunt to whom his grandmother had assigned his mother.

At the Liturgy of Christian Burial, on June 6, Villa chaplain Tom Elliott, CSC, led the family and community in quietly joyous worship. Burial was in West Roxbury, Massachusetts the next morning, in the SSND section of Mount Benedict Cemetery. Sister Orontia was buried next to her sister, Miriam Joseph Walsh, SSND

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Mr. Roland Edmonds - Husband of Mrs. Elaine Edmonds

Family Hour:                                                                   Wake: Thursday, June 7, 2018 10:30 am

Wednesday, June 6, 2018 3 pm - 7pm                            March Life Tribute Center

March Life Tribute Center                                                  5616 Old Court Rd. 

5616 Old Court Rd.                                                              Windsor Mill, MD. 21244

Windsor Mill, MD. 21244

Funeral Service:

Thursday, June 7, 2018 11:00 am

March Life Tribute Center

5616 Old Court Rd. 

Windsor Mill, MD. 21244

The Passing of Mr. Eric Wheeler

t is with great sadness that we report the passing of Mr. Eric Wheeler, son of Harry Wheeler, this past weekend. We offer our thoughts and prayers to Eric's family and friends and ask for the Lord to bring them comfort and peace during this very difficult time. Final arrangements are listed below:

Viewing:

Thursday, October 18th all day 

Family Hour 5pm - 7pm

March Funeral Homes East

1101 East North Avenue

Baltimore, MD. 21202

Funeral Service

Friday, October 19th 

St. Matthew's Catholic Church 

5401 Loch Raven Blvd

Baltimore, MD. 21239

Wake: 10:00 am

Service: 10:30 am

“The dawning of August 24, 1926 brought with it a blessed event to two happy, Catholic young people,” Francis James and Bertha Virginia Wasilewski Rachuba, when Dorothy, the first of the family’s two daughters, was born. “The center of attention,” Dorothy was baptized on Sept. 9, 1926 at Holy Rosary Church, Baltimore, Maryland.

 

At the age of six, Dorothy found herself “sitting in the first grade at Sacred Heart of Jesus School, where she first met the School Sisters of Notre Dame.”  She received her first Holy Communion in 1933 as a second grader and was confirmed by Archbishop Michael J. Curley that same year. As a seventh grader, Dorothy noticed pictures of girls wearing long black dresses, on her teacher’s desk and asked Sister Cassian about them. She learned that they were candidates preparing for the religious life. Dorothy said in her autobiography that, “Then and there, I don’t know why, I was determined to become one of them.”

 

Dorothy met Sister Dosithea, Directress of the aspirants, while visiting Notre Dame College (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) for an eighth-grade Sodality meeting. Before she knew it, she was on her way to the Juniorate, where she lived “the happiest years that I had ever spent.” Under the guidance of the Sisters, she “grew more firm in a conviction that the religious life was meant for me.” The long-awaited day arrived on Aug. 24, 1946, when Dorothy walked down the aisle of Sacred Heart Convent chapel in the long black dress and received the bonnet of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

 

After a year of Normal School and one year of teaching the first grade at St. Peter’s School, Philadelphia, Pa., Dorothy was received into the novitiate on July 16, 1948. She was given the name, Mary Edwardine. Sister Mary Edwardine professed her first vows on Aug. 3, 1949.

 

Sister Mary Edwardine taught primary and elementary grades at St. Wenceslaus School, Baltimore, Md.; St. Joseph School, 87th St., New York City, NY; St. Gerard School, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.; St. Ambrose School, Baltimore; St. Joseph School, Verona, Pa. and St. Matthew School, Baltimore from 1949 to 1984. While at St. Matthew, Sister completed her studies for a Master of Education in Reading at Loyola College, (now University) in 1971. She had previously earned a Bachelor of Science in 1956 from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Sister Dorothy then used her education as a reading specialist coordinator at St. Matthew’s School (1984-87). Dorothy returned to teaching elementary classes at St. Pius X School and Our Lady of Fatima School, both in Baltimore (1987-2006).

  

Dorothy was a woman with a calm and generous spirit. She loved her family. According to her niece, Debbie, Dorothy was a very special aunt to her nieces and a godmother to many. She was an important part of every family celebration and loved to talk about her family. Their concerns were always in her prayers.  

 

Thoughtful and caring, Dorothy would leave gifts on the kitchen table for Sisters’ birthdays and at Christmas. She volunteered to give hand massages to the Sisters. She shared her beautiful singing voice and enjoyed playing the piano. Dorothy was always ready for a good time, whether it was playing bingo or enjoying strawberry milkshakes from McDonalds.

 

Unable to attend the celebration of her 70th anniversary of profession, Dorothy was ready and patiently waiting to go to heaven. She was at peace; she would celebrate in heaven with all that God had ready for her. As she entered the novitiate, Dorothy had written in her autobiography, “My only desire was coming true, my only dream. Little did I realize that the long dress I wanted was the pattern of the seamless robe of Christ.”  Dorothy died peacefully on June 29, 2019.

 

The wake service for Sister Dorothy was held on Tues., July 2, and the Liturgy of Christian Burial was celebrated by Rev. John Savard, S.J., Rector of the Jesuit Community, on Wed., July 3.  Interment followed at Villa Maria Cemetery, Glen Arm Rd., Glen Arm, Md.  Sister Dorothy is survived by her sister, Jean Orozco, and several nieces.    

 

-          Jeanne Hildenbrand SSND

Funeral Services for Mrs. Gloria Kearson

Viewing:

Thursday, July 23rd 6pm to 8pm at Wylie Funeral Home Baltimore City, 701 N. Mount Street, 21217.

Funeral Service:

Friday, July 24th Wylie Funeral Home, Baltimore City, 701 N. Mount Street, 21217 11am to 12pm. Attendance is limited to 100.