Sister Sheila Murphy, RSM

Sister Sheila died at Marian Oaks Life Center in Burlingame on Tuesday, September 25, 2018, at the age of 89. Born in County Limerick, Ireland, second youngest of the ten children of Thomas Murphy and Annie Hart Murphy, Jane Sheila with her sister Rita came to the United States in 1947 when she was 17. Two years later she entered the Sisters of Mercy in Burlingame, taking the religious name Sister Mary James. After her profession of vows in 1951, she ministered in education for the next forty years. Sister taught primary grades at St. Catherine and Our Lady of Angels Schools, Burlingame; St. Bartholomew’s School, San Mateo; and St. Bruno’s School, Whittier, where she also served as school principal. In 1967 Sister returned to the Bay Area and taught at Holy Name School and St. Gabriel School in San Francisco. She also earned Masters Degrees in special education and in counseling. After teaching a year at St. Charles School in Imperial Beach, sister spent a few years in prayer ministry at Mother of Mercy House of Prayer in Chatsworth. In 1981 Sister Sheila began a ten-year ministry as teacher and principal at Immaculate Heart School in Santa Ana until 1991, when she then moved into health ministry at Scripps Mercy Medical Center in San Diego. For the next ten years Sister Sheila served first as assistant in medical records, then ministered in the mental health department, and also in the library/archives. Sister’s gifts of facilitation, her ability to evaluate situations and offer solutions, and her sense of humor and her compassion, all contributed to her manner of engaging with students, parents, parishioners, patients and her sisters in community. In 2010 Sister retired from active ministry and spent her last years at Marian Oaks Life Center in Burlingame. She is survived by her nephews John and his wife Mary, Michael and his wife Joanne, their families, her brother Bill in Canada, many nieces and nephews in Canada, Ireland and England, and her loving community of the Sisters of Mercy.

A vigil service will be held on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. at Marian Oaks Life Center, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, and the Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, October 5, at 10:30 a.m. followed by burial at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma. Memorial gifts may be made to the Sisters of Mercy, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010.

Sally passed away peacefully from abdominal cancer at age 76, surrounded by family, on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018. Born and raised in Indianapolis, she was a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where she was president of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority chapter. A resident of the Bay Area since 1963, Sally was a teacher and spent two years in the Peace Corps on Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, with her husband, Ken. Later in life she earned an MSW from U.C. Berkeley and spent many years as a school counselor.

Devoted mother of her three children, Theodore, Daniel and Amy, and a thrilled and loving grandmother of granddaughters Claudia, Kenzie and Madeline. Adored by Ken over their 55 years of marriage after dating in high school and through college. Survived by Ken; their children and grandchildren; her sister, Marjorie Thompson; and her brother, David