Recent Deaths

Sister Rosalie Hennessey
1929–2011

Sister Rosalie Hennessey, 82, died Aug. 31, 2011, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Tampa, Fla. She was born June 29, 1929, in St. Paul, Minn., to Edward and Rosella (Francois) Hennessey, the second of four children. She grew up in Cylon, Wis., a small town near New Richmond, where she met the Servite Sisters who taught catechism there during summers. She attended two years of high school in New Richmond and then transferred to Our Lady of Sorrows High School in Ladysmith.

She entered the Servants of Mary in 1947. She earned a bachelor’s in education from the College of St. Catherine and a master’s in counseling from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. Her first assignment was to St. Rose of Lima School, Roseville, Minn., where she ministered for 16 years, first as a teacher and then as principal. She served in administrative roles at Mount Senario College, Ladysmith, for 14 years, and in congregational leadership for four of those years. She moved to Tampa in 1982 and served for ten years as executive director of Alpha House, a crisis pregnancy center. In 2005 Alpha named a new building “The Rosalie Center” in her honor. She served as director of grants and services of the Conn Memorial Foundation, Tampa, for eight years. She retired in 2000 and continued her life of service as chair of the grants committee of the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center and a member of the grants committee of the Mary Alphonse Bradley Fund.

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