Jane Joyce was born in Chicago on March 5, 1927 to Patrick Joyce and Bridget Heneghan. She and her twin Margaret Therese were the seventh and eighth of ten children. She was baptized at St. Benedict Church. Her autobiography gives a good taste of what her childhood was like:
Staunch Irish immigrants, my parents brought us up in an atmosphere of respect, obedience, and love. My early years are full of happy memories and pleasant years with my brothers and sisters. My sister and I were especially close to our brother Bob, who was just a year older than we. Ingenious at devising novel means of entertainment and highly adventuresome, Bob provided many delightful experiences for us. Anxious to see how the rest of the world lived, we occasionally accompanied Bob on one of his treks to parts unknown. More than once, the happy little wanderers were returned to an anxious mother by a towering Chicago policeman. Perhaps [that was] an omen of future events; Bob died before he could complete his first assignment as a Redemptorist priest, that of a foreign missioner to Thailand.
Jane’s twin Margaret (later Sister Martinus) entered the SSND aspiranture at the Academy of Our Lady, Chicago after they completed the eighth grade, but Jane attended all of high school at St. Michael Central High School, Chicago, with "no desire to enter the convent." That changed during her third year of high school, when her participation in extra-curricular activities brought her close to one of the SSNDs at St. Michael. Marge had become a candidate after her third year in the aspiranture, so when Jane entered, in Milwaukee, she was in the postulants’ group in the following year, 1944.
Jane was received into the novitiate in 1946, and given the name of Sister Margaret Therese, her twin’s baptismal name! She was professed the following year, "on the centennial day itself," on July 31, 1947. (The first SSNDs to reach the United States had arrived in New York City on July 31, 1847.) She professed final vows on July 31, 1953.
Sister Margaret Therese, as Jane was then called, taught intermediate and junior high grades at several schools in Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as serving as principal and superior in some of them. In 1963, she obtained a Master of Arts degree in history from DePaul University in Chicago.
Though she was never a missionary herself, Jane was always keenly interested in the countries where her twin ("my Marge,") served - Guam, Guatemala and Paraguay - and
had the opportunity to visit Guatemala when Marge was there. An interesting story, Sister Martinus (Marge) had her passport in her baptismal name, Margaret Therese. When Sister Margaret Therese (Jane) applied for her first passport to go to the Silver Jubilee program in Rome, the application was returned, saying she already had a passport. Since they were twins, they had not only the same parents, but the same birthdate…and that was what prompted Jane to return to her own baptismal name.
In 1995, Sister Jane took on the role of alumnae coordinator for the Academy of Our Lady, a task which she thoroughly enjoyed for over ten years. Also, from 2002 to 2005, she served as archivist for the Chicago province. In 2007, she moved to Marian Village, and in 2008, to Resurrection Life Center.
Sister Jane died peacefully on May 11, 2017, in the 70th year of her religious profession. Jane had been anointed shortly before she died and Sisters Carol Brunner and Patricia Ostdick were with her.
The last of the ten siblings to die, Jane is survived by many loving nieces and nephews, and their families.
Visitation was held on May 18 at Resurrection Life Center. The wake service and Mass of Christian Burial were held that evening at Mater Christ Church in North Riverside, Illinois. Interment was the following day at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois.
- Sister Charlaine Fill, SSND
