Remembering Sr. Rosemary McKenna, DW, 83, Sr. Mary James of the Child of Jesus, 3/30/38-11/17/21

The second of four children to Mary and James McKenna, Sister was predeceased by her parents and siblings, John, James, and Ann Hayden, and will be greatly missed by her many nieces, nephews, extended family, the Daughters of Wisdom, Associates of Wisdom, and staff members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent. 

Sister attended Our Lady of Victory Grade School in Floral Park, NY, and Our Lady of Wisdom Academy in Ozone Park, NY. The day after graduation from high school, Sister entered into the Daughters of Wisdom Novitiate and made profession on August 2, 1957. 

Her first ministry was at St. Charles Hospital, Hicks St. Brooklyn, NY, where at first, she filled in wherever she was called. Such assignments included running the famous elevator, helping in the babies' ward, and as a seamstress. She even devoted time to learning how to sew the Sisters' habits. Afterward, she went to Maryview Hospital School of Nursing, Portsmouth, Virginia, to become a registered nurse. These were days of racial segregation in the South. For three years, Sr. Rosemary was head nurse on Unit 6, a strictly segregated unit.

In 1965, Sr. Rosemary was back in New York and living in Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY. While studying to earn her B.S. in Nursing at Hunter College, she would begin another ministry with Sr. Claire Peers, DW. Together they responded to the community's needs and galvanized others to empower the community through education and training. Along with the late Father Jack Peyton (Brownsville, NY) lay people, leaders of other faiths, the Daughters of Wisdom, Dominican Sisters, and Sisters of St. Joseph, training programs were developed for employment, housekeeper training, industrial sewing machine training, home health aide training, ESL, GED, Camp Leadership in Litchfield, CT for the teenage girls, drug prevention programs, youth employment, and community organizing. Beyond that, they established Nehemiah Housing and housing for people with AIDS.

Programs were conducted in Brooklyn's Good Shepherd Center, Ralph Center, Our Lady of the Presentation Church, and eventually BHRAGS (named for Brooklyn, Haitian, Ralph, and Good Shepherd Centers. Over the next thirty years, more than 30 Daughters of Wisdom served in these ministries.

Sr. Rosemary served on the Daughters of Wisdom's Leadership Team for two terms and helped open a house in Broad Channel, N.Y., to serve as a pre-novitiate for women interested in religious life. 

She was a founding member of Hospice of South Shore, Long Island, NY, and a Pastoral Associate at St. Rita's Church in East New York, and St. Margaret's church in Waterbury, Connecticut. She and Sr. Marie Burke, SSND, founded the "In the Making" training program, which still exists today, for women's employment in Waterbury, Connecticut. 

Her life experiences and a ministry in Thailand working in a Cambodian Refugee camp added to her keen sense of injustices and strengthened her resolve to advocate for justice and peace. A member of the congregation's JPIC (Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Commission) committee, Sister walked in many marches and lent her voice in many gatherings over the years, including traveling to Georgia to participate in protests to close The School of the Americas. 

During all these years, Sr. Rosemary worked with a spirit of faith and fairness learned at home. She once shared that, "My beautiful, good parents lived an honest, caring life in God's light that showed me the way! Strong, just men and women of yesterday and today strengthened the light for me to be faithful."

As a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent in Sound Beach, NY, in her retirement years, Sister took pride in welcoming visitors to the Convent and tending to the Chapel. One of her greatest delights was in arranging flowers donated by community members.

To make a donation in Sr. Rosemary’s memory visit: Donations