Age 89
Sister Mary Davida Dunne (born Mary Louise) was a Sister of Mercy for 70 years. Sister Davida entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1951, where she earned a Masters in Special Education. She served as part of the faculty of St. Maurice School in Potomac, Maryland, that introduced outstanding practices in the ministry of special education. Here Sister Davida began a life-long delight by working with students. She returned to Fall River, Massachusetts, where she worked for years in special education at Nazareth Hall, Fall River. She was noted for her creativity in designing programs to interest and educate her students. While at Nazareth, she lived at St. Vincent Home, where she interacted with the children for whom this was home. When Nazareth closed, she taught at St. Peter and Paul parish school.
After retiring from school, she worked in parish ministry at St. Peter and Paul parish. Among her services was conducting the burial prayers at the cemetery for funerals. Again, the quiet understanding of this prayerful woman brought comfort to those who grieved. Like everything she had done in her ministries centered in God, she lived her motto of “Love serves.”