Sister Gertrude Higgins died in Tarrytown, NY, January 19, 2003

Sister Gertrude Higgins died at Marymount Convent, Tarrytown, NY, Saturday, January 18, 2003. She was 97 years of age and would have celebrated 75 years as a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary later this year.

She was born Rosaline Carmel Higgins in Dublin, Ireland on May 9, 1905, to Michael and Margaret Mary Morgan Higgins.

On October 5, 1926, she entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary at Marymount in Tarrytown, NY. She made her first vows at Marymount, Tarrytown, on July 12, 1928 and her final vows, also at Marymount, on August 27, 1933.

After first profession, Sister Gertrude was sent to Marymount School in New York, NY, where she taught from 1928 to 1934. In 1934, she was assigned to Marymount College, Tarrytown, NY, where she taught art and art history until she retired in 1970. At that time she was named professor emerita. In 1993, she moved to Marymount Convent, Tarrytown, NY where she was living at the time of her death.

Sister Gertrude had many gifts—teaching education, speech and especially art—and a great love of music and all things Irish. She was an artist and taught hundreds of students to love art and the old Masters. She was a wonderful calligrapher, and like a medieval scribe, she could patiently and painstakingly letter words with graceful lines and dots of color with perfection. After retiring from teaching at the College, she devoted her time to CCD programs in Immaculate Conception Church in Tarrytown. She also kept in touch with the Mother Butler Center in South Dakota, and the Mother Butler Guilds, which had been one of her interests in her years at the College.

Sister Gertrude is survived by several cousins who are Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary: Sister Nora Grace and Sister Catherine Grace both of Tarrytown, NY and Sister Francisca Grace of Rome, Italy. Her sister Sister Albert, also a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, died in June 2002.

Funeral services were at Marymount Convent, Tarrytown, NY. Sister Gertrude was buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in White Plains, NY.