OBITUARY

Sister Jacqueline Marie Paradis, S.U.S.C., 69

Posted

CUMBERLAND — Holy Union Sister Jacqueline Marie Paradis, 69, died Feb. 9 at Mount St. Rita Health Centre.

Born in Providence, she was the daughter of the late Emile and Beatrice (Hall) Paradis.

Sister Paradis graduated from the former St. John the Baptist Academy, Pawtucket. She entered the Holy Union Sisters in Groton, Mass. on Sept. 6, 1959, and pronounced her final vows on August 15, 1968. She studied at the Sacred Heart Teacher Training School, Groton, and received a bachelor of science degree in education from the former Catholic Teachers' College, Providence. She completed additional studies at the former College of the Sacred Hearts, Rhode Island College and Providence College.

Sister Paradis ministered as a teacher and principal in Massachusetts for many years.

Her last teaching assignment was in her home parish at St. Cecilia School, Pawtucket, where she taught seventh grade.

In 1988, she became a childcare worker at the Blackstone Valley Emergency Shelter in Central Falls. In 1990, she began work as an intake interviewer at the Blackstone Valley Emergency Food Center, a ministry she continued until last year. She was a pastoral minister to the sick and elderly in St. Cecilia Parish and served on the parish Pro-life Committee and Centennial committees. Sister Paradis also served on committees within her Holy Union community.

Failing health caused her to move to Mt. St. Rita Health Centre in December 2010 where she remained until her death.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Feb. 11 in St. Cecilia Church. Burial was in St. Francis Cemetery, Pawtucket.