Sister Theresa McCall, OP 1927-2021

On June 26, 1961, an almost thirty-four-year-old Theresa McCall arrived at the Adrian Dominican Motherhouse to begin her postulancy.

Theresa was born October 8, 1927, in Detroit to David and Mary (Shingleton) McCall. Baptized Theresa Ann, she was the fifth of the couple’s six children after John, Paul, Martin, and Margaret and before the youngest boy, Berard. John and Paul were originally triplets with another boy, Girard, but he died shortly after birth.

She attended first and second grade at St. Rita’s School, on the city’s east side, until the McCalls moved to the west side and she enrolled at Precious Blood School where she was taught by Adrian Dominican Sisters through eighth grade. She graduated from Cooley High School in 1945 and worked for Kresge’s, a dime store, until entering the Congregation more than fifteen years later.

Her decision to become an Adrian Dominican was not a sudden one, she said in her 2018 “A Sister’s Story” video, but it came in an unusual way nevertheless: “I didn’t have a calling or anything like that; I just thought it would be a good way to live. … I just thought I should do something besides work in a store.”

Her mother had died by this time, as had John and Margaret, but her father was all for her entering; after all, she said, “at that time the big thing was to have a son be a priest or a daughter a nun.”

Even as the oldest member of her crowd, “I didn’t mind all the young ones who entered at the same time,” she said. She was received as a novice that December, taking the religious name Sister Victor Mary in honor of a priest friend and her mother, and after her canonical novitiate year was assigned to teach at St. Lawrence School in Detroit.

It was there that she met Sister Barbara Cervenka, who became one of her lifelong friends. In her remembrance of Sister Theresa, Sister Barbara wrote:

It was my second mission; it was her first. Theresa was just coming out of the novitiate, but the truth is that she had done most of her formation at Kresge’s, where she had worked for twenty years before entering the community. … She began teaching her sixth grade class with a confidence that I found amazing. She was, we might still say, a straight-shooter, fair and respectful of her students.

But she really loved the little kids, like the third-graders I was teaching, and she would get such a kick out of talking to them and seeing their art. Probably because of Theresa I still remember the names of so many of those little kids…

As it turned out, all of Sister Theresa’s ministries were in Michigan, whether it was teaching or her service in the area of social work. After St. Lawrence, where she was from January 1963 until June 1965, she was assigned to St. Elizabeth School, Tecumseh (1965-1967); St. Bernard, Alpena (1967- 1968); Guardian Angels School, Clawson (1968-1975); and St. Theresa-Visitation, where she taught high school in 1975-1976. She completed her bachelor’s degree in social work from Siena Heights College (University) in 1970 and her master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Wayne State University in 1975.

With that master’s degree in hand, when open placement (the ability to choose one’s own ministry in dialogue with leadership) became an option, Sister Theresa decided she wanted to work with women and with troubled youth, first (from 1976 to 1979) in group-home settings in Detroit, Dearborn Heights, and Inkster, Michigan, and later, from 1979 to 1981, as director of Vista Maria, a girls’ home in Detroit.

In such ministries, “she worked directly with young people with problems and brought a steady hand and solid presence to young people who had had a hard time of it,” Sister Barbara wrote in her remembrance.

She developed a particular interest in serving women on the margins and in fighting abortion and human trafficking. Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, in her funeral homily for Sister Theresa’s funeral, discussed this special ministry focus:

We know that Theresa had a passion for the unborn, but did you know that she spent years in Detroit serving women on the margins of society, those caught up in a life that deprived them of a voice and stripped them of self-respect and self-determination? She made a point of reaching out to women on the streets in Detroit whenever she had the opportunity. Over time her passion focused on women caught in the vicious evil of human trafficking. Daily she wore a pin with a red cross on a black background, an anti- trafficking symbol of commitment and solidarity.

But she did not leave the school environment behind completely. Over the years, she also taught at St. Cyprian School in Riverview, Michigan (1979); St. Albert the Great School in Dearborn Heights (1992-1993); and in the Detroit Public Schools (1993-2004); and served for eleven years (1981-1992) as a counselor at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Detroit.

She lived in the Detroit area – either in a reclaimed HUD home, bought for her by her nephew Doug, on the city’s west side where she spent many years, or in an apartment in adjacent Livonia – until 2011, when she returned to Adrian to reside at the Dominican Life Center. There, she continued her advocacy for the unborn and the victims of trafficking for the rest of her life.

Sister Theresa died at the DLC on February 9, 2021, aged ninety-three and in her fifty-ninth year of religious profession.

“I will miss her,” Sister Barbara’s remembrance concluded:

Theresa was a character, a character of the best sort. She was solid as a rock, honest, as they say, as the day is long. She loved her family and her friends; she loved being at Maria, in part because she knew that her family and friends did not need to worry about her; she loved and enjoyed the sisters at Maria and the nurses and aides, and was grateful to them. She was always her own person – that was enough and always the best.

Sister Barbara also mentioned the regular visits she, Sister Nancyann Turner, and Sister Theresa had at a Detroit-area Big Boy restaurant; Sister Nancyann also mentioned those times in her own remembrance:

We would solve all the world’s problems, have great discussions and then top off the evening with a hot fudge sundae (chocolate ice cream, also) shared by all three of us.

She was practical, honest, and caring with no duplicity or pretense. We valued her so much as a friend.

Sister Janet Wright said in her remembrance:

Theresa was a member of our Samaritan Mission Group for many years. She hosted a number of meetings at her home in Brightmoor [in Detroit]. While she was a faithful member, she was a woman of few words. When our discussions back then centered around “Who am I? What am I about?” Theresa would say, “I am here to know, love, and serve God in this world, and to be happy with him in the next!” What else is there to say? Theresa was, however, passionate about the social evils of abortion, human slavery, and women’s sexual exploitation and mutilation. She could speak at length about these issues and spent much of her time and energy on them.

… Theresa was a good friend – salt of the earth. I will miss her.

Sister Theresa’s nieces Dorothy Sanchez, Meg Ballis, and Holly Neifert also sent in their memories of their aunt. Dorothy told of how, when her mother passed away when she was just 10 years old, with still-younger siblings, her Aunt Theresa helped her father with all that needed to be done for them. Then, when Dorothy’s husband passed away, her aunt was there for her in all manner of ways. “I guess you could say she was like a second mother to my brother, sister and I and a grandma to my children,” she said.

Meg wrote:

I learned kindness and love and the importance of compassion and empathy from Aunt Theresa. The world is a better place because of the life she lived and I am a better human being for having the blessing of a relationship with her.

And Holly’s memories included the times she and her aunt would go to the local park in Livonia and sit on a huge cement camel in the sandbox.

I’m sure we had a name for him but unfortunately I cannot seem to remember it. She always called me her sweet girl and for years would call or text me every night just to tell me good night and that she loved me. Aunt Theresa always made sure I felt special and loved. I am so blessed to have had her in my life and I know she will continue to be there for me.

Right: Members of the Samaritan Mission Group are: standing, from left, Sisters Barbara Mary Saynay, Joanne Spisz, Grace Dennis, Sean Allgeyer, and Mary Jo Sieg and seated, from left, Sisters Theresa McCall, Janet Wright, Susan Parker, and Associate Doris Beach.