Sister Kathleen

Cross Keys is well-known as a place to have a "power" breakfast, so it was a natural location for an early-morning meal to honor Sister Kathleen Feeley.Darielle Linehan and Pattie Batza, board members of Marian House for homeless women, chaired the event, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the shelter, while honoring Sister Kathleen as the Marian House volunteer of the decade.Marian House, which is led by another dynamic nun, Sister Augusta Reilly, opened its doors in 1982. For four to eight months women live at Marian House, where they receive much needed love, counseling and training to help them become productive, happy women.

Sister M. Kathleen Martin, a member of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart who was a pastoral associate, died March 1 from complications of a stroke at The Villa, the assisted-living facility her order shares with the Sisters of Mercy in the Woodbrook section of Baltimore County. She was 87. Kathleen Martin was born and raised in Cumberland. She was a graduate of Catholic Girls' Central High School and entered the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart. She professed her vows in 1949, and took the religious name of Sister Ignatia of the Precious Blood, and reverted to her baptismal name in 1968.

HEY EVERYBODY: Will you be at "Sister Kathleen's Gala" tomorrow night? There are still a few tickets left for the dazzling show at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall which will honor Sister Kathleen and benefit the College of Notre Dame endowment fund. Originally, Dinah Shore was the star attraction, but she had to back out because of knee surgery. Gala chair Margaret McManus managed to land Donald O'Connor, the legendary Hollywood song and dance man, and Barbara Cook, the Broadway star about whom critic Rex Reed once said, "If I ever get to heaven, I expect the angels to sound like Barbara Cook."

Sister Mary Kathleen Steinkamp, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy who was a former parochial school math teacher and later a financial administrator for her religious order, died Oct. 14 of cancer at The Villa, her order's retirement home in the Woodbrook neighborhood of Baltimore County. She was 74. Mary Kathleen Steinkamp was born in Baltimore and raised in Northeast Baltimore. She was a 1953 graduate of Mount St. Agnes High School in Mount Washington. After earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics and secondary education from Mount St. Agnes College in 1957, Sister Kathleen entered the Sisters of Mercy that year.

Sister Kathleen Kirk, a Carmelite nun and organist who learned Greek and Spanish so she could read religious texts in their original language, died Tuesday of heart failure at the order's monastery in Towson. She was 86. Born Margaret Mary Kirk in Columbus, Ohio, she later moved with her family to Washington, D.C., where she graduated from St. Anthony's High School. In 1933, she entered the Carmelite Sisters of Baltimore and took the religious name Sister Kathleen. As a young nun, she studied Greek to be able to read original editions of the Bible and Spanish to read the works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as they were written.

Sister Kathleen Ryan, a retired housekeeper and cook, and a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, died of cancer Thursday at Assisi House, her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 88. Born Mary Catherine Ryan and raised in County Cork, Ireland, she entered the order at Glen Riddle, Pa., in 1933 and professed her vows three years later. In 1939, Sister Kathleen moved to Baltimore, and during the 1940s and early 1950s she worked as a housekeeper at St. Anthony's Convent in Gardenville and then Immaculate Conception Convent in Towson.

Sister Kathleen Mary, 90, grammar school principal Sister Kathleen Mary O'Keeffe, a Franciscan nun and former grammar school principal, died Saturday of respiratory disease at Assisi House, her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 90. She was a teacher and principal at St. Stephen Parochial School in Bradshaw from 1946 to 1950, and again from 1962 to 1964. She began her career in 1928 at SS. Philip and James in Charles Village and later taught at St. Peter Claver School in West Baltimore and Shrine of the Little Flower in Belair-Edison.

A performance honoring Sister Kathleen Feeley's retirement as president of the College of Notre Dame will feature former Hollywood star Donald O'Connor and concert singer Barbara Cook at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.Sister Kathleen studied at Notre Dame, taught there and became president in 1971. Tickets, at $50 and $100, are available by calling 582-5542. Proceeds benefit the College of Notre Dame's endowment fund.

Patricia Galli is divorced and the mother of four grown children. And she is studying to become a Roman Catholic nun.Ms. Galli's marital status is an anomaly, but it represents an important change in a church that deplores divorce. Faced with dwindling numbers of women who choose to devote their lives to God, the Catholic Church is opening its doors to people who would have been excluded from religious life in the past.No one is keeping track of the number of divorced women entering the convent, but interviews with nuns across the country suggest that lingering taboos against the divorced are disappearing in the larger orders.

"Women's colleges create the atmosphere that empowers women and inspires leadership," Sister Kathleen Feeley wrote in a letter to the editor last September. As president of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland for the past 21 years, Sister Kathleen has been in the forefront of making this statement a reality.On Saturday, Sister Kathleen presided over her last crop of graduates. She was also the commencement speaker for the 275 students who receive diplomas from the small liberal arts college in Homeland.

At a college in a small town in Ghana where students don't have textbooks, or books of any sort actually, the American professor faced a quandary. Some of the books she kept for them, in a makeshift, bricks-and-boards library in her office, were getting too old and tattered for lending out, but how could she throw them away? So she piled them under a sign saying that any of her students with perfect attendance could take one to keep. "Each one was more worn than the next -- no cover, raggedy, dog-eared -- and yet students would take 20 minutes to pick through them," Sister Kathleen Feeley said.

Marion Burk Knott, whose name graces many of the educational and medical buildings donated by her builder-philanthropist husband, Henry J. Knott, died of heart and respiratory failure at her Warrington Apartments home in Guilford. She would have been 93 next week. "She with her husband left their children a marvelous example of philanthropy and faith," Cardinal William H. Keeler said yesterday. "She was a devoted mother and I am sure that many will be mourning her passing. I join them."

Sister Kathleen Ryan, a retired housekeeper and cook, and a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, died of cancer Thursday at Assisi House, her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 88. Born Mary Catherine Ryan and raised in County Cork, Ireland, she entered the order at Glen Riddle, Pa., in 1933 and professed her vows three years later. In 1939, Sister Kathleen moved to Baltimore, and during the 1940s and early 1950s she worked as a housekeeper at St. Anthony's Convent in Gardenville and then Immaculate Conception Convent in Towson.

Sister Kathleen Kirk, a Carmelite nun and organist who learned Greek and Spanish so she could read religious texts in their original language, died Tuesday of heart failure at the order's monastery in Towson. She was 86. Born Margaret Mary Kirk in Columbus, Ohio, she later moved with her family to Washington, D.C., where she graduated from St. Anthony's High School. In 1933, she entered the Carmelite Sisters of Baltimore and took the religious name Sister Kathleen. As a young nun, she studied Greek to be able to read original editions of the Bible and Spanish to read the works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as they were written.

Sister Kathleen Mary, 90, grammar school principal Sister Kathleen Mary O'Keeffe, a Franciscan nun and former grammar school principal, died Saturday of respiratory disease at Assisi House, her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 90. She was a teacher and principal at St. Stephen Parochial School in Bradshaw from 1946 to 1950, and again from 1962 to 1964. She began her career in 1928 at SS. Philip and James in Charles Village and later taught at St. Peter Claver School in West Baltimore and Shrine of the Little Flower in Belair-Edison.

Michael G. Michallas, 70, beauty salon owner Michael G. Michallas, a cosmetologist and former owner of Ja-Mi Beauty Salon in Lutherville, died Saturday of undetermined causes at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 70 and lived in Towson. In 1957, he opened the beauty salon in the Pine Ridge Inn on York Road with his partner, James Stroumbis. After the building was sold and razed in the early 1980s, the salon moved to Front Avenue in Lutherville. Mr. Michallas closed the salon and retired last year.

Almost everything about the College of Notre Dame of Maryland was vulnerable when Sister Kathleen Feeley took over as president 21 years ago. It was small, it was Catholic, it was a liberal arts school, it was in the middle of a city and, worst of all, it was a women's college.Notre Dame is still all of those things as Sister Kathleen retires this week. It is still vulnerable, but its president for these two decades has worked miracles -- little ones and big ones -- to keep the college a vital part of Baltimore's educational and cultural life.

Kathleen Feeley enters the classroom smiling. And why not? It's a new term at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Sister Kathleen is about to spend the next 14 weeks immersed in a melange of three abiding passions: theology, literature and teaching.She walks into Room 18 in the Fine Arts building smiling, and smiles through much of the 75-minute honors English class, through questions and responses and group readings. At 69, after a two-year stint as Baltimore City special-education administrator, the former college president has returned to the work that called her to the School Sisters of Notre Dame 52 years ago."

Around the Franciscan Center, they call her Kathy or Kathy from St. Anthony's in Gardenville or Sister or Sister Kathleen. Makes no difference to her.She's busy pushing chairs, examining ramps for the disabled, approving a contractor's decision, lining up the shoes and checking the cans of tuna. She's doing exactly what St. Francis of Assisi asked of her: "Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words."For Sister Kathleen DeLancey, director of the center, preaching means doing, and doing means getting ready for a day her Franciscan sisters have dreamed about for 10 years -- the dedication tomorrow of a $3.4 million Franciscan Center to serve the poor, at 101 W. 23rd St.Not a sleeping shelter, the daytime center will be marking its 30th anniversary as one of the area's most complete one-stop venues for qualified low-income people in need of free services.

Kathleen Feeley enters the classroom smiling. And why not? It's a new term at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Sister Kathleen is about to spend the next 14 weeks immersed in a melange of three abiding passions: theology, literature and teaching.She walks into Room 18 in the Fine Arts building smiling, and smiles through much of the 75-minute honors English class, through questions and responses and group readings. At 69, after a two-year stint as Baltimore City special-education administrator, the former college president has returned to the work that called her to the School Sisters of Notre Dame 52 years ago."