Tribute to Sr. Aquinice from Religious Sisters of Mercy

Happy Holidays To All, Those of you who attended the funeral services on Dec. 14 for our late Aunt Rita, Sr. Mary Aquinice McCorry, may recall meeting Sr. Ann Flanagan, who was one of the organizers of the service. She asked me to share this with all of you. This is the official notification from the RSM of her passing. Also, if you click on this link, you will be taken to the Web site of the funeral home that hosted the service. Again, my best wishes to all of you for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please share this with other friends and relatives. Sincerely, Robert Mullins Milwaukee Sisters of Mercy, West Midwest Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 Celebrating the Life of     Sister Aquinice McCorry, RSM (1.25.1925 ~ 12.7.2019) A TEACHER, PRINCIPAL, ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR, PASTORAL ASSISTANT, AND A SISTER OF MERCY FOR 76 YEARS! Sister Aquinice was born on Jan. 25, 1925, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Given the baptismal name of Agnes, she was one of six children of Charles and Bridget (McCoy) McCorry. She grew up in Milwaukee where she attended Catholic schools, graduating in 1942 from Mercy High School. Agnes entered the Sisters of Mercy in Des Plaines, Illinois, during her senior year of high school, where she was given the religious name of Sister Mary Aquinice. Sister Aquinice often said she knew was "destined to be a Sister of Mercy." Her eldest sister, the late Sister Benedicta who was six years older, was one; plus, they had two aunts and three great aunts who were all Sisters of Mercy in Northern Ireland. On a trip to Ireland, she and Sister Benedicta were fortunate to visit their aunts' graves. For 26 years, Sister Aquinice taught primary grades in parochial schools in the Archdioceses of Chicago and Milwaukee, and the Diocese of Davenport (IA). She was also a principal, serving for 13 years (1970-1983) at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Chicago. Sister Aquinice left teaching in 1983 to minister as activities director at St. Catherine Residence in Milwaukee for four years. In 1988, she returned to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish as a pastoral assistant, working alongside her sister, Sister Benedicta. This was Sister Aquinice's third time ministering at Mount Carmel. Besides principal, she had taught there for nine years during her early years of teaching. At Mount Carmel, the two sisters worked well together. They handled the parish daily activities, archives, and Carmel Prayer Center. When they retired in 2003, Mount Carmel held a joint farewell reception for the two who jointly served there 65 years. The McCorry sisters were the parish's longest serving Sisters, having worked with five of the parish's pastors. In all, Sister Aquinice devoted 38 years to the parish - while Sister Benedicta served there for 27 consecutive years. Their retirement was bittersweet for the parishioners of Mount Carmel, since it marked the end of 115 years of Sisters of Mercy presence at the parish. Sister Aquinice, whose motto was: "I come to do Thy will," once said, "My many years in ministry as an elementary teacher and administrator were fulfilling. I can't believe I did it!" She added, "God was good to me." "Sister Aquinice, who could often be found in the activity room working on puzzles, loved being with people. She was very social. She loved her family, her community, former students, everyone!", says Sister Ann Flanagan.   Funeral services were held Saturday in Chicago. To access her obituary and online guestbook, kindly click here.

McCorry Family USA Christmas Letter 2019

Merry Christmas to All!                                                                     Dec. 14, 2019

As Christmas 2019 and New Years 2020 approach, the one person in our family who has been welcomed into the kingdom of Heaven this year is Sr. Mary Aquinice (RSM), our Aunt Rita McCorry. She passed away on Dec. 7, age 93, at the Mercy Circle retirement community in Chicago. Representatives of each of the McCorry families – Jonas, McCorry, Mullins and Schield – attended the services in Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 14, and posed for this photo afterwards.

Pictured front row, center is the surviving member of the original McCorry family in America, Teresa McCorry Jonas. Sr. Aquinice will be missed and was lauded by those who attended and/or presided at the service.

The Jonas Family

Other McCorry news of note this year is the trip several Jonas family members took to Ireland back in June. Here’s a great group photo of them here at the home of our maternal grandmother, Bridget McCoy-McCorry.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Ireland without a pub crawl. The photo below was taken at Tig Choili, a pub in Galway, and features (foreground, l-r, Sarah, Jane, Michael, Mary Groth and, in the background, Jim Jonas.)

Next, and I believe this is a first for McCorry USA Families, one of us had our home featured on a national TV show! Jane’s son Luke Shaner and his wife Marielena, built a home near Lake Superior that operates completely “off-the-grid,” which means it doesn’t connect with a utility to get electricity. It was featured on an episode of “Building Off the Grid” on the DIY Network earlier this year.

The Mullins Family

The year 2019 was a big year for me because I moved back home to Milwaukee from the Bay Area of California in June – after 19 years! I turn 65 next year and my cost-of-living should be lower here than in California. I moved in with my brother Joe on the second floor of a duplex in Bay View bought by our late brother John “Moon” Mullins and his then wife, Linda Dwyer. Our downstairs neighbor is our nephew Casey Mullins and his girlfriend, Jessica Headson. They are expecting a baby boy in March so the Mullins name will continue for another generation. Linda lives with her second husband, Pete Hirthe, and their four children, just a few blocks away from us.

This was the first summer in years where I was able to attend the annual Dwyer Family Pig Roast at Linda’s family’s cottage at Paddock Lake in Kenosha County. Bill flew in from Palm Springs, Calif., as well. Linda piloted the boat with Lizzy Van Pelt (my sister Mary’s daughter) and others on board.

Our cousin, Jane Jonas Williams, sent me a link to an image on Ancestry.com that identified my dad George Mullins, his brother and my namesake, Robert Mullins, and their parents, Harry and Margaret, as being counted in the 1930 U.S. Census (see the first four lines). How cool is that?

With the Jonases in Ireland, Jane asked me and my sister Betty, to visit their mom, Aunt Teresa, at the nursing home where she resides in Milwaukee.

I wanted to make sure this photo below included not just me and my Aunt Teresa, but also the collage of many Jonas family photos on the wall.

The Schield Family

From the Schields comes news that Pat Schield Werth and her husband Jay Werth are rebuilding their house in Santa Rosa, Calif., which was destroyed by wildfires there in 2017. The new house nearing completion was, thank God, spared the flames of new wildfires that swept through the area this year.

Pat and Jay have been living, for most of the time since the fire, with their daughter Megan Rabbaa, her husband Nino, and their two daughters, during the rebuilding. “Everyone asked about our house,” Pat wrote on her Facebook page recently. “As you can see, we have shingles on the roof - it really looks more like our house! I am so happy!” Pat said they hope to move into their new home by Christmas or shortly after New Years. The Rabbaa family moved this year to San Diego for a new job for Nino Rabbaa.

David Schield assures me that while no Schield family members currently live in Neillsville, the “Never-Never Land” cottage just outside of Neillsville is still in the family! At the services for St. Aquinice, we reminisced about the many enjoyable times we had at the cottage.

David’s daughter, Miranda, and her husband, Justin Mayer, welcomed Silas Schield Mayer into the world on Feb. 28.

Dan Schield and his son, Michael, visited Thailand this year. Michael is the son who lived in China for a number of years, building his business of creating indoor golfing games, where you swing a golf club at a screen and the image indicates where your ball landed if it was a real course!

Jim Schield, who officially retired from his job as a U.S. Marshall, has worked as a consultant training Iraqi police officers for the past few months in Florida and California. Jim is also often featured on cable news shows as an analyst commenting on stories related to the work of the Marshall’s Service.

David and Rebecca Schield celebrated 35 years of marriage this year with a trip to Italy.

The McCorry Family

Dan and Robin McCorry visited Sr. Aquinice at Mercy Circle in August of this year. “As always, she was spirited and full of smiles,” Dan told me. “We were blessed to have had the opportunity to be with her—may she rest in peace.”

Dan is retired from the U.S. Air Force, but still does some part time work, including work on DARPA – the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency – the military project that gave us the Internet.

Dan and Robin’s daughter Melanie has her own place in Northern Virginia and is working for a startup data analytics company. Gavin left the Navy in April and also moved to Northern Virginia. Dan said it is wonderful to have them close by, especially with their grandchildren, Madeleine and Charlotte. Daughter Chelsea is in her second year of grad school at UMASS Amherst, Dan said.

Brian and Betsy McCorry were in attendance at the funeral for Sr. A. It was great for me and my sisters, Betty and Mary Mullins, to visit with Brian and Betsy and other relatives.

Maureen McCorry Drabik, and her husband David Drabik, who couldn't make it to the service, shared that their youngest son, Patrick, graduates from the University of Dayton this month and has landed a job in Dayton, Ohio. Daughter Meghan is engaged to a young man named Cameron Elton. They are planning their wedding for next fall in Dayton, where they also both live and work.  

Best Wishes to All

That’s about it for the McCorry News Roundup for 2019. Sorry if I couldn’t fit all of your family news in, but I think I got the gist of it!

Condolences for everyone on the loss of Sr. Aquinice. I enjoyed being one of the cousins who gave their own eulogy for her, along with Jane Jonas Williams and Brian McCorry. My favorite anecdote to share was when Sr. A, along with another Mercy nun (not Sr. B), came to our family home on 71^st St. in Wauwatosa for a visit. It was the summer of 1967 and I had recently bought a copy of the Beatles’ album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Sr. A’s given name was Rita so I played for her the song “Lovely Rita.” She got a big kick out of the lyric “… sitting on a sofa with a sister or two.” She was LITERALLY sitting on a sofa with a sister or two at that moment!

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Feel free to share this with any friends or relatives you’d like to! Best holiday wishes to all of you and best wishes as well for a great 2020!

Love,

Robert J. Mullins

3364 S. Pennsylvania Ave.

Milwaukee, WI 53207