Sister Mary Lois Hennel
Sister Mary Lois Hennel passed away on Friday, April 3, 2026, at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She was 98-years-old and had been a Sister of Providence for 79 years.
Commentary
By Sister Jan Craven, SP, and Sister Rosemary Schmalz, SP
Sister Mary Lois was born in Evansville, Indiana, on April 18, 1927, to John and Ollie May Willett Hennel. Her father was given the privilege of naming this child (she was the sixth of seven) and he chose to name her after her mother, with one slight adjustment. She was baptized Ollie Marie, not Ollie May, after her mom.
Her first contact with the Sisters of Providence was when she attended Evansville Reitz Memorial High School. After graduation, she worked for a year at a Credit Union in Evansville, and it seems that this must have given birth to the community’s idea that she had talents that could be used in an office.
She shared with Sister Rosemary Schmalz that she worked in the education office all through her canonical year, no doubt typing multitudinous records. As we all know, this was not the usual canonical employment. Most were assigned stints in housekeeping and laundry and the infirmary. Mary Lois did office work.
It was on July 21, 1946, that Ollie Marie entered the Sisters of Providence. She was given the name Sister Mary Lois. She told Sister Rosemary it was her third choice. She can’t remember why she even put it on her list.
Two of her three brothers had already entered religious life. Her brother J. William became a diocesan priest, but spent his priestly life in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas. Her brother Rex became a Holy Cross Brother, serving many years as a missionary in Africa. She professed first vows on January 23, 1949, and perpetual vows on January 23, 1954.
As almost every Sister of Providence in the 1940s, she began her ministerial life as a teacher, teaching for 20 years in elementary schools in Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She said that she enjoyed teaching but never felt that it was her true calling. She always felt a little inadequate, not offering her students some of the wonderful extras that she saw others offering.
Her second last teaching mission, 1968-69, was St. Joseph in Jasper, where she served as house treasurer. As Providence would have it, she made some kind of error in the last month’s report and had to go to the Business Office that summer to get it straightened out. She met with Sister Arlene Knarzer to discuss this.
In the room where they were meeting, there was a large business machine and she told Arlene that she would love to see how it worked. Sister Arlene passed this on to Sister Margaret Kern, who, in turn, asked Mary Lois if she would like to leave teaching and join her staff. Sister Mary Lois said yes.
She had already been assigned to teach at Sacred Heart in Evansville for the 1969-70 school year, but after that year, she began her new ministry path. It seems somewhat ironic that she had just finished a master’s degree in education from Indiana State University the previous summer.
She served as Business Office staff for five years, and then served three years giving general service to the entire St. Gabriel Province staff, including its treasurer. After a two-year stint as secretary to the Continental Convalescent Center in Indianapolis, she returned to the Central Business Office for four years.
In 1984, she went to the West Coast for six years, first serving four years as secretary at St. Teresa of Avila School. She followed that with a sabbatical in the CREDO program in Spokane. At the end of that year, Sister Nancy Reynolds, who was working at the San Francisco Archdiocesan tribunal, asked her to come there as her assistant. However, at the end of the year, Sister Mary Lois wanted to return to the Midwest, to be closer to her loving family.
She returned first to Illinois where she served four years at Mother Theodore Guerin High School as a secretary and she then returned to the Business Office for eight more years.
At age 73, she officially retired, but did she? Of course not. She served as Owens Hall Treasurer, Lourdes Hall Treasurer, and general assistant to Sister Nancy Reynolds when Nancy was General Treasurer. Sister Nancy said that Mary Lois came to her when she was elected in 2001, and offered to be of help in any way. She was 74 at the time and was a totally generous and dependable assistant for the next 10 years. Even in her 90s, she volunteered at Providence Food Pantry, signed up for hours at the semi-annual book sales, took her turn at the reception desk, contributed her part for the smooth running of her wing in Providence.
She had special devotion to the Eucharist, taking care of the Providence Hall Chapel for a number of years, replacing the sacred hosts every Sunday.
But enough about what she did. Yes, we remember her great business, secretarial and organizational skills but what we most remember is this lovely woman, always a peaceful presence, almost always behind the scene, and always willing to help. But her generosity extended beyond the giving of her time.
In 2003, she moved to Owens Hall. Built as a novitiate in the early 60s, only about three bedrooms had private bathrooms, those that were reserved for the sisters responsible for running the novitiate. When it became to general residence, Mary Lois was one of the fortunate three who had one of these rooms.
However, in 2010, a Sister of Providence, with many physical challenges related to digestion, had to move to Owens. Mary Lois, realizing the sisters’ needs, offered her room and joined the crowd sharing the gang bathroom.
Mary Lois was also a woman of prayer. It appears that she had the practice of praying daily for many people, and this included nearly every student she ever taught. Two stories on this. Mary Lois taught three years in Massachusetts and taught Sister Kathleen Leonard’s brother, Dennis, in the fifth grade. If they crisscrossed at summer meetings, Mary Lois would always inquire about Dennis. At one of these exchanges, Kathleen shared some particular need her brother had and asked Mary Lois for her prayers. Mary Lois replied, “Oh, I pray for Dennis every day.”
Another example: Sister Rebecca Keller has a grandniece, Adelyn, who is now 17. She was born with a hole in the roof of her mouth. Over the years, Mary Lois would ask Becky how Adelyn was doing … because she had prayed for her for all these years!
Sister Mary Ann Phelan relates that in the spring of 2022, she and Mary Lois were in the Second Floor Tile Hall kitchenette where someone had just put up the 11-by-17 poster of pictures of the sisters 90-and-older. Mary Ann said that Mary Lois, looking at the spread, said with some shock, “Oh, I’ve moved to the top row (the pictures were in order by age).” I don’t think she thought of herself as old. Three or four weeks ago, she was 98, just a few weeks shy of her 99th birthday and still passing out programs in the Mother Theodore Chapel at Mass, still leading the daily rosary at 10 each morning.
Maggie, Mary Lois’s youngest sister, said that Mary Lois was always telling her that Maggie has bossed her ever since she arrived on the scene. Naturally, Maggie did not agree with her! At their paternal grandmother’s funeral, the family looked at Mary Lois and saw that she was wearing a red hat to the funeral. When she was asked why, she responded that neither of her older sisters, Becky and Katie, were wearing it, so, she decided she would wear it. After all, read was her favorite color.
Maggie also recalls that as children, they were given assignments for cleaning the house. Maggie’s was to clean the bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Mary Lois’s was to clean the reception room and the living room. After Maggie finished her chores, she would go to see if Ollie was ready to go outside and play. What did she find instead? Ollie would be sitting there reading a book with none of her work done. “I would do her work,” Maggie reported, “and then we would go outside and play.”
From her beloved niece, Peg Ballinger: “I was so impressed with your list of accomplishments! You’ve been everywhere, woman! We Love you, our beloved Aunt Ollie.”
And so, Mary Lois, you have blessed us all with your quiet, stable, generous, dependable presence for almost 80 years. You have prayed for those you served and for all of us for the same 80 years.
Thank you for all you have given us. We are counting on you to continue this generous connection in the days ahead.
Funeral Information
Funeral services for Sister Mary Lois took place on Wednesday, April 22, and Thursday, April 23, in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
A Wake took place from 3:30-4:30 p.m., on Wednesday, April 22, with Vesper Services at 4:30 p.m. An additional Wake took place from 10-11 a.m., on Thursday, April 23, with Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m.
Memorial contributions may be made in honor of Sister Mary Lois to the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
We welcome you to share your memories of Sister Mary Lois in the comment section below.
Sister Mary Lois Hennel
Complete Ministry
In Illinois: Teacher, Our Lady of Sorrows, Chicago (1949-53); Secretary, Mother Theodore Guerin High School, River Grove (1990-94).
In Indiana: Teacher, St. Anne, New Castle (1954); Teacher, St. Andrew, Indianapolis (1954-60); Teacher, St. Joseph, Indianapolis (1963-65); Teacher, St. Joseph, Jasper (1965-69); Teacher, Sacred Heart, Evansville (1963-70); Treasury, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (19707-75); Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, St. Gabriel Province, Indianapolis (1975-76); Province Staff, St. Gabriel Province, Indianapolis (1976-78); Bookkeeper, Continental Convalescent Center, Indianapolis (1976-78); Bookkeeper/Secretary, Continental Convalescent Center, Indianapolis (1979-80); Assistant to Business Manager/Motherhouse Operations, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1980-82); Payroll Account Plant Business Office, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1982-84); Finance Clerk/Cashier, Central Business Office, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1994-96); Staff, Central Business Office, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1996-2002); Residential Services/Treasurer for Owens Hall, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2002-18); Providence Food Pantry Volunteer, West Terre Haute (2014-22); Treasurer for Lourdes Hall, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2015-18); Residential Service/Providence Spirituality & Conference Center Volunteer, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2018-22); Prayer, Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2022-26).
In New Hampshire: Teacher, St. Mary, Rochester (1960-62).
In Massachusetts: Teacher, St. Rose, Chelsea (1962-63).
In California: Secretary/Librarian, St. Teresa of Avila, Los Angeles (1984-88); Secretary, Archdiocese of San Francisco Tribunal (1989-90).
