Sister Helen

Anyone who appreciates live theater bolstered by profound social commentary will welcome Dead Man Walking, the collaborative venture between Moonlight Troupers of Anne Arundel Community College and Dignity Players of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis. Also sponsored by AACC's Institute for Criminal Justice, Legal Studies and Public Service, the Moonlight Troupers-Dignity Players production of Tim Robbins' play opened last weekend in Humanities 112 on the Arnold campus and continues in the intimate theater space tonight and tomorrow night.

On December 27, 2005, SISTER MARY HELEN FELLENZ, S.S.N.D.; Dear daughter of the late Marie (nee Bongner) and Mathias Fellenz; beloved sister of the late Helen M. Fellenz; survived by cousins in Missouri. Dear friend of Katherine Kane of Baltimore. Sister Mary Helen Fellenz donated her body to science. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at the Villa Assumpta Chapel on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 11:30 A.M. Contributions in memory of Sr. Mary Helen Fellenz may be made to the School Sisters of Notre Dame, 6401 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21212.

Two sopranos dying of consumption, another prone to sleepwalking, and a baritone facing capital punishment by lethal injection - all part of the action planned for the Baltimore Opera Company's 2005-2006 season. Particularly noteworthy is the local premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which has enjoyed remarkable success with the public and the press since it was introduced by the San Francisco Opera in 2000. Baltimore Opera joined six other companies to fund the compact, visually potent co-production that will be seen at the Lyric Opera House in March 2006.

Just before Sister Helen Amos began as chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore 12 years ago, several of its doctors visited her at the Sisters of Mercy headquarters in Silver Spring. "Our location could kill us," the doctors warned, she recalled. Her reply: The downtown hospital isn't moving, so "we're going to have to figure out how to make the location work." Indeed, they did. During a decade in which Baltimore saw two hospitals close and several others open suburban satellites to chase a shift in population, Mercy didn't merely persevere.

Edward C. Opet, senior vice president of human resources at Mercy Medical Center, died there Monday of colon cancer. He was 46 and lived in Fulton, Howard County. Mr. Opet, who was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., earned his bachelor's degree in 1979 from Florida International University's School of Hospitality Management. He later did graduate work at Harvard University, Cornell University and Wake Forest University. He began his professional career in 1980 with the Marriott Corp.

On February 14, 2003, CATHERINE MARIE "Cass" died at the Franciscan Care Center at Brackenville Hockessin, DE, from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. Cass had been a resident of this excellent facility for over six years and was 91 years old. Born in Baltimore on December 8, 1911, she was the youngest daughter and third child of the late Charles A. and Margaret (O'Conner) Maenner. Cass was preceded in death by her brothers Charles (Buck) and John Maenner and her sister Helen Fitzgerald.

Sister Helen Marie Duffy, a retired headmistress of Notre Dame Preparatory School who demonstrated compassion, courage and selflessness to thousands of students during her six decades at the school, died Friday at age 87. She died at Villa Assumpta, the mother house for retired School Sisters of Notre Dame, of complications from a fall she suffered Aug. 13. Sister Helen Marie was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. As a teen-ager, she taught impoverished children in...

Sister Helen Carpinelli, a teacher and member of the Holy Union Sisters, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at the religious order's St. Colman's Convent in Brockton, Mass. She was 65. Born in Camden, N.J., she entered the Roman Catholic order in 1958. She took the name Sister Joseph Francis, which she used until returning to her given name in the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Loyola College, where she also earned a certificate in pastoral counseling.

Sister Helen Teresa Egan, a physics professor at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland for nearly two decades, died of heart failure Thursday at Maria Health Care Center at Villa Assumpta, the motherhouse of her order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, in Woodbrook. She was 89. Sister Helen Teresa spent 56 years in the classroom, from her first assignment teaching fifth-grade boys at a Catholic school in Massachusetts in 1934 until her last post as a computer coordinator at St. Maria Goretti High School in Hagerstown, from which she retired in 1990.