Sr. Cleary served in diocese

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CLINTON — Sister Kathleen Cleary, OSF, a former teacher who served in the Diocese of Davenport, died April 24, at the Alverno. She was 80.

She was born Oct. 23, 1940, in Columbus, Ohio, to Patrick Joseph and Ruth Mae (Ware) Cleary.

Sr. Cleary

She entered the Sisters of St. Francis at Mount St. Clare Convent in Clinton on Sept. 8, 1958, and received the name Mary Philip at her reception on June 15, 1959.  She later resumed her baptismal name.  She made her first profession on Aug. 12, 1961, and her final profession on Aug. 12, 1964.

Sister Cleary completed elementary, middle and the first two years of high school at Catholic schools in Colorado prior to graduating from Mount St. Clare Academy in Clinton 1958.  She received a B.A. in elementary education at Marycrest College in Davenport and later completed a Master of Arts degree in religious education at The University of Seattle.  She also earned a Master of Science degree in counseling and psychology from California

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Baptist University in Riverside, California. She held an Iowa professional teaching certificate.

Sister Cleary taught first and second grades at St. Mary School in Carrollton, Missouri, and was director of the Mount St. Clare Preschool in Clinton for the next eight years. For the remainder of her active ministry, she was missioned in California.  She taught primary grade school children at St. Margaret Mary School in Chino and at St. Catherine of Alexandria, Riverside.  She also directed the Extended Day Program at St. Catherine’s in

Riverside, and for many years, she served as librarian, counselor, and assistant principal at St. Margaret’s, Chino. – both in California.

She retired at The Canticle in November 2019 and moved to the Alverno in July 2020. She continued to minister to everyone around her through her cheerful spirit, positive attitude and openness to all she met.

A private Mass was to be held.  Burial at St. Irenaeus Calvary Cemetery.


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