Submitted by: Dan Rich
Mother Mary Clare O’Brien CSC
May 3, 1906 – Jan. 30, 1961
South Bend Tribune 9/30/1961
Mother Mary Clare CSC, 54, midwest
provincial superior of the Sisters of Holy Cross, died at 1 a.m.
today in St. Joseph Hospital, South Bend. She had been ill since
last October. During her carrer as a teacher she had taught at
St. Mary’s Academy, South Bend, at Holy Cross School in
South Bend, and at St. Mary’s High School in Michigan City.
She became midwest provincial superior of the Sisters of Holy
Cross in 1955 and guided major building programs in the provinces’
hospitals and school during her term of office. Two of the
largest were the addition to St. Joseph Hospital here and the new
provincial house for the order. She was born in Chicago, Mary
Margaret O’Brien on May 3, 1906. She attended parochial
elementary schools and St. Mary’s High School in Chicago and
studied for the teaching profession at Chicago Normal College.
She taught for a short time in Chicago
schools before applying for entrance to the Congregation of the
Sisters of the Holy Cross at the age of 21. She entered the
community on July 2, 1928 and received the habit on Jan 6, 1929.
She made her final profession of vows on Aug. 15, 1934. After
she became a member of the order she received a master’s
degree in education from the University of Notre Dame. Her career
included both teaching and administrative positions in Midwestern
schools. In addition to the two from South Bend, and the Michigan
City school, where she taught, she also server as a teacher at
St. Teresa’s Academy in Boise, Idaho; and St. Mary’s
High School in Anderson, Ind. She became superior and principal
of St. Mary’s School in Michigan City in 1943. From 1946
until 1955 she was provincial councilor and school supervisor of
the Midwest Province of the Sisters of Holy Cross. Included in
survivors a nephew who is a priest and another is the Dominican
order.
A requiem mass will be offered for her at
10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mary’s Convent, the motherhouse
of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Rev. James O’Brien, a
nephew who was ordained a year ago and is serving at the Church
of St. Berchmans in Chicago, will celebrate the mass. Internment
will be in the Community Cemetery at the motherhouse. Friend may
call until the time of services on Wednesday.