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Sister Mary Rita Gleason, OP 1919 – 2015

Sister Mary Rita Gleason, born August 29, 1919, in Clayburg, New York, was the third of eight children born to William and Kathryn (Moore) Gleason. She began her autobiography by correcting a misconception that she was a “Floridian.” She wrote: To many of my acquaintances I am known as a “Floridian,” but actually I started my life as a “snowbird.” My earliest years were spent near the Canadian border in Clayburg, New York. I was the third child of William and Kathryn Gleason. In the summer of 1926

my parents, my two older brothers, Thomas William and Robert Joseph, a younger brother Francis Patrick and I moved to Florida. In Florida, before I entered the convent, my mother gave birth to three more children. We then had the “Florida crackers and the snowbirds.”

Sister Rita shared some stories about her early years in the cold climate of Clayburg. She even remembered going to church in a sleigh, living on a farm next to her grandparents, and beginning school in a one-room rural school. She noted, “City life in Florida was drastically different from life in Clayburg!” The family relocation to Florida in the mid-twenties was affected by the Depression. Her father and uncle opened a real estate business but in a few years they lost it. Then they began a bean farm in the Lantana area but it was destroyed by the 1928 tropical hurricane. Her father eventually got a job in West Palm Beach, where he continued to work until he retired. The family lived in St. Ann Parish in West Palm Beach, and Sister Rita attended the parish school. In her autobiography, she wrote:

My religious vocation was fostered in our good home where fidelity to the tenets of the Catholic Church was closely observed. The example of the Adrian Dominicans who taught me at St. Ann School drew me to Adrian. Teaching was their major ministry at the time, and teaching was in my genes, because my mother and several of my aunts had been teachers.

Sister Rita entered the postulate in June 1935 at the age of fifteen. At her reception in December, she received her religious name, Sister Ann Catherine. She completed her high school education at St. Joseph Academy and made first profession on January 4, 1937. That same year her youngest sister Eileen, who was born in 1936, died. Her older brother, Robert Joseph, who was 21, had a cerebral hemorrhage. Sister Rita said, “His resignation was a source of inspiration to me and to many others.” He died in 1989.

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When Sister Rita made profession, the majority of the Sisters were assigned to formal classroom teaching and to school administration. Her autobiography gives the following overview of her fifty years of ministry in education, Congregation leadership, and development.

I taught for seventeen years and was in school administration for ten years. My grade school teaching was limited to two years at St. Patrick School, Joliet, Illinois, and two years of teaching at St. Anastasia in Fort Pierce, Florida, where I taught mornings in grade school and afternoons in high school. For two years I taught at Aquinas High School in Chicago. After six years of high school teaching at Rosarian Academy, I became Prioress there and later served six years as the principal. Subsequently, I supervised the high schools staffed by our sisters in South Florida, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

When the congregation government was divided into provinces, I was appointed the first Provincial of the Southern Province, St. Rose of Lima Province. [While serving] as provincial I remained at Rosarian Academy, the site of the provincial office.

After six years as Provincial Superior, I spent four years as a high school teacher at St. Patrick School in Miami. I think of this period as an interlude to the next ministry in which I became involved for over fifteen years.

The ministry – development -- began in an informal way at Rosarian Academy, where in the twenty-two years of my stay, I witnessed and was involved in considerable growth of the institution. Because of many Adrian Dominicans and of the generous donations of benefactors, the institution underwent considerable expansion.

I spent over fifteen years in formal development work, mainly in Congregation-sponsored institutions: Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California; Siena Heights College [University], and the Adrian Dominican Development Office. I [also] ministered for four years as Director of Development at St. Catharine College in St. Catharine, Kentucky, sponsored by Kentucky Dominicans.

When Sister Rita retired in 1991 she made the decision to live in the North. She wrote, “Since I had been in the South for twenty-eight years of my religious life, I chose to stay in the North where some day I hope I will be fortunate enough to be at the Dominican Life Center.” Sister Rita returned to Adrian in 2000 and lived at the Dominican Life Center until she died on December 26, 2015, at the age of ninety-six and in the seventy-ninth year of her religious profession. During the remembrance service Sister Helen Sohn, Vicaress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, said,

Rita’s last line [in her autobiography] is so indicative of her commitment to God and Congregation. Rita wrote, “I value my days of retirement. They have

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provided me the opportunity for additional spiritual growth and given me the chance to explore new ministries. I enjoy teaching at the Dominican Literacy Center, taking special sewing classes and engaging in various types of crafts.”

Rita, we thank you for showing us how to serve God, family and Congregation with serene elegance, genuine joy and quiet confidence that a divine plan was at work within you and through you.

To Mike and Stacy Gleason, Rita’s nephew and his wife; to Tom Gleason, nephew of Sister Rita and to Howard Ballard, very dear friend and father of Rita’s nephews, Pat and Mike (and brother-in-law of our deceased Sister June Secor) we extend our sympathy and prayers. [And to] Rita’s very dear cousins, Betty Waldron and Helen Wilson, her close friends, especially Sister Ann Romayne Fallon, the nurses and may co-workers who cared for Rita throughout her time at Maria and to the sisters of 2 South and to all the Sisters who shared community with her, we extend our sympathy and prayers.

Several family members spoke of their deep love for and gratitude for Aunt Rita’s influence in their lives. During the funeral, Sister Ann Romayne began her homily by saying,

As I reflected on the three readings1 Sister Rita chose for this special liturgy, it became quite clear to me that the Holy Spirit was very inspirational in her decision and drew her to the powerful words that are indicative of the person that Rita was. The passage from the Book of Wisdom speaks of faithfulness that encourages great hopefulness and, ultimately leads to the depth of generous love – all virtues that captured the heart of Sister Rita Gleason.

The reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians allowed Rita to

recognize Paul’s role as a missionary who had been commissioned to preach God’s plan of redemption to the Gentiles and early Christians. Rita possessed much of the same desire – that she would always be personally committed to making our congregation mission a reality. And, indeed, she spent all of her years as an Adrian Dominican devoted to God by living his command to love all who touched her life as we are all called to do.

In the gospel reading from John, Jesus was helping his apostles understand he would be leaving them. In his effort to comfort them, Jesus assured them that he would prepare a place for them and that his Father’s house has many dwelling places. What great news that is for Rita who spent her life making room for all and is, no doubt, checking to see that space in her eternal home continues to have no limits.

1 Wisdom 3:1-6,9, Ephesians 3: 14-21, John 14: 1-3

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Rita treasured every friend and had time for everyone. Her love for her family was special and she considered every minute spent with them as sacred. Her love for her Dominican family was well proven over these eighty years spent totally in dedication to the ministry and mission of the congregation. Her appreciation for every person was evident in her welcoming smile, her eagerness to listen to every story and her expressions of gratitude for any kindness shared with her.

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Right: 1963, Ponce, Puerto Rico with left - Sister Mary Jean Walsh, center - Sister Mary Rita Gleason, right - Sister Josephine Sullivan.

Left: 1935 with Rosaria Margaret Buesching. Right: 1995, celebrating her Diamond Jubilee with family.

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Left: Mary Rita with her brother, Tom, on a family vacation. Right: On the steps of the Adrian Dominican Sisters' Motherhouse with her father.

Left: Celebrating Lucile Olf's 100th birthday. From left to right: Mary Rita Gleason, Lucile Olf, and Ann Fallon.

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Left: Cousins pictured from left to right, Sisters Mary E. Waldron, Mary Rita Gleason, and Helen Wilson.