SINSINAWA — Sr. Marcella Connolly, OP, died April 13, 2016, at St. Dominic Villa. Her religious name was Sr. Baptista. The funeral Mass was held in Queen of the Rosary Chapel at Sinsinawa April 19, 2016, followed by burial in the Motherhouse Cemetery.
Sr. Marcella lived Christ’s peace, teaching for 20 years and serving as principal for 11 years as well as campus and pastoral minister for 12 years. She spent nine years as a youth minister in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and founded the Apostolic Volunteer program in 1973, which is now Dominican Volunteers USA. Sr. Marcella served the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation as vicaress provincial of the Northwest Province for four years and coordinator of the Preaching for the Foreign Mission Fund for one year and enriched community life for nine years. She made her first religious profession as a Sinsinawa Dominican Aug. 5, 1949, and her final profession Aug. 5, 1952. Sr. Marcella served in Illinois, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as well as Bolivia.
In the Diocese of Madison, Sr. Marcella taught at St. Clara Academy, Sinsinawa, 1956-1959.
Sr. Marcella was born June 18, 1927, in Des Moines, Iowa, the daughter of John and Marcella (O’Malley) Connolly. Her parents; three sisters, an infant, Margaret Kotz, and Eleanor Van Dyck; and three brothers, Bernard Connolly, John Connolly, and Richard Connolly, preceded her in death. She is survived by a sister, Mary Alice Hansen; a brother, William “Bill” Connolly; nieces; nephews; and her Dominican Sisters with whom she shared life for 66 years.
Memorials may be made to the Sinsinawa Dominicans, 585 CR Z, Sinsinawa, WI, 53824-9701 or online at www.sinsinawa.org by clicking on “Donate Now,” then “Honor and Memorial Gift.”
Repeat broadcasts of the wake and funeral for Sister Marcella are available online at www.Sinsinawa.org/live. Click on the “on demand” tab.