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Obituaries - In Loving Memory
Sister Magdalen Dooper
Sister Magdalen (formerly Magdella) Dooper, OSB, 97, of St. Scholastica Monastery, died December 27, 2009. She entered the Duluth Benedictine community on February 24, 1931, and was admitted to the novitiate November 13, 1931, when she received the name “Magdella.” Many years later she returned to her baptismal name. Sister made her first profession December 30, 1932, and professed final monastic vows July 11, 1936. She observed the 70th anniversary of her profession July 28, 2002, and at the time of her death she was in the 77th year of her monastic profession.
Sister Magdalen was born in Amery, Wisconsin, November 23, 1912, the first of eight children born to Bernard and Catherine (Dosch) Dooper. Her early life was spent in the Amery area where she attended the public elementary and secondary schools.
In 1930 she enrolled at The College of St. Scholastica where she earned a B.S. in elementary education after which she began her teaching ministry. Sister Magdalen taught at St. James, St. John’s, and St. Clement’s in Duluth; Assumption in Hibbing; Marquette in Virginia; and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Cloquet. Later Sister earned an Executive Housekeeper Certification through the National Executive Housekeepers Association. As a member of this association, Sister Magdalen held offices in both the Head of the Lakes Chapter and the Upper Midwest District. She was a member of the Council on Aging of the Duluth Community Fund.
She served as prefect of nurses at St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Duluth and as sacristan at Hibbing General Hospital in Hibbing. For the last forty years of her active career Sister Magdalen worked with the elderly at St Anne’s in Duluth. In this work she served in various capacities: bookkeeper, administrator, executive housekeeper, house director, and supervisor of linen and housekeeping. In 1996 Sister Magdalen retired and returned to the Monastery where she continued to provide craft items for the Monastery gift shop and participated in prayer ministry.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers Edward, Bernard, and August; her sisters Irene, Elizabeth, and Marie; a step-sister, Florence, and a step-brother, Francis. Besides the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery she is survived by her sister Dorothy O’Meara and by many other relatives, including Sister Michelle Dosch, OSB, of St. Scholastica Monastery.
Sister Bernadette Bergeron
Sister Bernadette (Rita) Bergeron, OSB, 93, St. Scholastica Monastery, died at the Monastery on Friday, June 19, 2009. She entered the Duluth Benedictine community on August 30, 1941, and professed monastic vows on July 11, 1943. She was in the 66th year of her monastic profession. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee of monastic profession August 15, 1968; her Golden Jubilee July 11, 1993; and her Diamond Jubilee August 15, 2003.
Sister Bernadette was born December 2, 1915, in Cloquet, Minnesota. She received her elementary schooling at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School in Cloquet, attended Stanbrook Hall in Duluth, and finished her high school education in Cloquet. She received an elementary teacher’s certificate from St. Cloud State College in 1935 and a B.S. degree from The College of St. Scholastica in 1956.
Sister Bernadette taught elementary grades at Cathedral Grade School and St. John the Evangelist School in Duluth; St. Francis School, Brainerd; Holy Name School, Wayzata; St. Timothy School, Chicago; and St. Thomas the Apostle School, Phoenix. She taught for 23 years at St. Bridget’s School, Minneapolis, and then served as school librarian. Later, she was the school librarian at Our Lady of Victory School, Minneapolis. She also taught summer religious education in several locations throughout the Duluth Diocese. In 1996 Sister Bernadette returned to the Monastery where she did volunteer services—assisting at the Information Desk, working in the Transportation Office and Spiritual Resource Center, and being a companion to Sisters.
Sister Bernadette expressed gratitude for her parents who were excellent models of Christian living. They, her parish priest and the Sisters who taught her all nurtured her vocation to the Religious Life. Religion was her favorite subject to teach and she enjoyed going through literature books in order to find good stories for her students. The Franciscan homilist at her funeral compared her to St. Francis of Assisi because of her love for nature and animals. It was said she sometimes picked up pennies on the sidewalks and used them to buy seed for birds. The Gospel reading for the funeral seemed appropriate because she, too, like the vigilant virgins who kept their lamps burning, kept her lamp burning in order to give to others light, clarity and warmth.
Sister Bernadette was preceded in death by her parents, Ernest and Hermina; her stepmother, Marie; her sisters, Helen Bergeron and Beatrice Benson; and her brother Stephen (Theodore). Besides the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery, she is survived by an extended family and many good friends.
Sister Laura Daigle
Sister Laura (Marie) Daigle, OSB, 87, of St. Scholastica Monastery, died at St. Mary’s Medical Center, Duluth, on January 4, 2009.
Sister Laura was born December 9, 1921, in the Township of St. Mathias, Crow Wing County, Minnesota. She attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Grade School, Cloquet, Minnesota, and in 1939 graduated from Stanbrook Hall High School, Duluth, Minnesota. That same year she entered St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth and made her monastic profession in 1941. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1966, her Golden in 1991, and her Diamond Jubilee in 2001. She was in the 68th year of monastic profession.
Sister Laura served many places in many capacities. She taught middle and upper grades in St. Gertrude’s School, Washington, D.C. as well as at St. Thomas School, International Falls, Minnesota, and St. John’s School in Duluth. She was the prefect for girls at St. Gertrude’s and for boys at St. James Children’s Home in Duluth. She graduated from The College of St. Scholastica in 1958 where she earned a B.S. degree and an RN. Her main duties after that were in the field of medicine. Over the years 1955-1963, she was a student nurse, an assistant head nurse, and finally head nurse at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth. Sister Laura then served as a nurse in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Brainerd, Minnesota, and Night Supervisor at the Cuyuna Range District Hospital, Crosby, Minnesota. In 1966 she was head nurse at Hibbing General Hospital where she also worked as a therapist at the Psychiatric Day Hospital in Hibbing and as a Nurse Counselor for youth in a drug program. In 1991 she retired and resided at St. Scholastica Monastery where she assisted in the Gift Shop and the Spiritual Resource Center. In 2000 she became the Associate Oblate Director and the Director of the Thomas Merton Center, which she had founded in 1978.
Sister Laura was preceded in death by her parents, Theodore and Hazel (Tougas) Daigle, and one brother, Donald. Besides the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery, she is survived by two brothers, Steve and Ted, one sister, Clara Lou Kinnumen, and several nieces and nephews.
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