Sister (St.) Edith Dunn, BVM
Sister (St.) Edith Dunn, BVM, 90, died June 12, 2014, at Marian Hall in Dubuque, Iowa. Visitation will be from 9–11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, in the Marian Hall Chapel followed by a prayer service at 11 a.m. Funeral liturgy will be at 1:30 p.m. Burial is in the Mount Carmel cemetery.
She was born Jan. 1, 1924, to Harold and Edith Mathis Dunn. She entered the BVM congregation from St. Malachy Parish, Rantoul, Ill., on Sept. 8, 1946. She professed first vows on March 19, 1949, and final vows on Aug. 15, 1954.
Sister Edith was an elementary and secondary school teacher in Dubuque and Waterloo, Iowa; and Chicago. She ministered as hospital secretary for over 22 years in Chicago.
She was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by sisters Virginia (Bill) Brockhaus and Dorine McCarthy, Janesville, Wis.; nieces; nephews and the Sisters of Charity, BVM, with whom she shared life for 67 years.
Sister (St.) Edith Dunn,
BVM Funeral Welcome
Marian Hall, June 17, 2014
Good afternoon and welcome to the celebration of life of our Sister Edith Dunn.
On New Year’s Day in 1924, Lucille Mary Dunn arrived in New Hampton, Iowa, as the first child of Harold and Edith Mathis Dunn. She was later joined by sisters Virginia and Dorine. Her father was a lumber manager who taught Lucille everything from roller skating to driving. Her mother was “a fashion plate” with a keen and precise sense of style that she passed on to her daughter.
When Edith celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1996, she told an abbreviated story of her life. The remainder of this welcome contains excerpts from that story.
“In seventh grade at Holy Family School in Mason City, Iowa, I met the BVMs and Sister Mary Adorita Hart, who was to become a lifelong influence in my life. We moved to Rantoul, Ill., when I was in high school, and six months after graduation, the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor and changed our lives. I quit business school and went to work in a civil service position at Chanute Field, an Army Air Base . . . After two years I thought I had done enough for the war effort and decided to go to college. I chose Clarke because Sister Mary Adorita was now there.”
“I really can’t explain how or why I felt ‘called’ to the religious life. Sister Mary Adorita was a great influence, but I’m sure the Lord had something to do with it.” Lucille Mary entered the congregation on Sept. 8, 1946, and received the name St. Edith upon her reception on March 19, 1947. Continuing with Edith’s story, she wrote, “During a social hour our first night at Mount Carmel, I made the mistake of playing “Sentimental Journey” on the piano . . . and I seemed destined henceforth to teach music!”
“We were professed in 1949 and it seemed everyone was flying off to New York or California, but I just ‘rode my trunk’ downhill to St. Raphael Cathedral School . . . Sister Mary Concepta Scott . . . called me aside . . . one day and said I’d probably be more convincing as an ‘experienced’ teacher if I took the price tag off which was hanging down from my shawl.”
Edith taught music for eight years at St. Raphael and St. Joseph Academy in Dubuque, and at Our Lady of Victory Academy in Waterloo, Iowa, before she requested to teach business. She taught business classes in Chicago at St. Pius HS and The Immaculata HS, and at Wahlert HS in Dubuque, where she chaired the business department for nine years.
“In 1970 . . . I was interviewed for an executive secretary position by an eminent Jewish psychiatrist . . . who was professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago . . . I liked his lifelong ministry of helping the oppressed, especially the poor and mentally oppressed. We worked together for 22 years; I found my ‘niche’ at last!” Edith continued to live at Wright Hall after her retirement in 1994 until she moved to Mount Carmel in 2011.
Edith was a pleasant, courteous, clever and intelligent woman. She had a great love of travel, a love that developed quite unexpectedly, as she explained. “One summer I had my first travel experience chaperoning students to the capital cities of Europe . . . I came back home so enraptured over the experience that my dad set up a trust fund for travel and as a result, I’ve been to all seven continents—even Antarctica.” Her adventures included extensive travel of the Hawaiian Islands, an excursion in a Borneo jungle, a Bible history tour through Jordan, Syria and Yemen, and trips to Tibet, Mongolia and even Timbuktu! She greatly enjoyed sharing her adventures with her BVM sisters through travel books, lectures and slide shows.
Edith lived 67 years as a BVM and was deeply grateful for her vocation and the BVM community that supported her. She concluded her life story by reflecting upon her religious calling. “When I was trying to decide whether I wanted to become a nun, I was praying one day in the Clarke College chapel . . . and I found a holy card in the pew in front of me of the Good Shepherd with the little lamb in his arms. It was my SIGN! And as sentimental as it sounds, that has been a symbol of God’s love and protection of me all these years. I have been the ‘wayward’ lamb straying off in all directions, but the Good Shepherd never tired of chasing me down and returning me to the fold.”
In our responsorial psalm, we will sing “Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.” We celebrate the earthy life of Edith and rejoice with her as the Good Shepherd welcomes her into the heavenly fold.