FORT THOMAS, KY — Congregation of Divine Providence Sister Betty Ann May, 81, died January 23 at St. Luke Hospital. She was a professed member of the religious order for 61 years.
Born in Danville, KY, she was the daughter of the late Bernard and Margaret May.
Sister May was a graduate of St. Camillus Academy, Corbin, KY, and received a bachelor of arts degree from Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY, and a master’s degree in education with a concentration in administration and supervision from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. She later became certified as a school librarian.
She entered the Congregation of Divine Providence on November 19, 1945 and made her first profession of vows on August 29, 1947. She made her profession of final vows on August 29, 1952.
Sister May served as a teacher in Kentucky and Maryland before being assigned to the former St. Joseph School, West Warwick, where she served from 1953 to 1955. She returned to the Diocese of Providence in 1975, and taught once again at St. Joseph School for two years, before serving as a pastoral minister at the Rhode Island Medical Center from 1977 to 1992. She then ministered as a pastoral assistant at St. Sebastian Church, Providence, from 1992 to 1995, and ministered as the Director of Religious Education at Sacred Heart Church, West Warwick, from 1995 to 1997.
Sister May subsequently served as an AARP social service worker in Coventry for a year, and in the diocesan Apostolate for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing from 1998 to 2000. She also served briefly as a pastoral minister at SS. John and James Church, West Warwick, in 2000, but had to retire because of illness.
Sister May was also instrumental in starting a prayer group, God’s Healing Love Community, in West Warwick in 1978, which has met weekly for more than 30 years.
She is survived by her twin brother Robert May. She is preceded in death by her brother Bernard.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated January 26 in the Sacred Heart Chapel of St Anne Convent, Melbourne, KY. Burial was in the convent cemetery.
Memorial Masses will be celebrated on February 22, 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, 60 Pleasant Street, West Warwick; and February 28, 8 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 596 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick.
