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.