OBITUARY

Sister Edna Marie LaRose S.U.S.C., 90

Posted

FALL RIVER, MA — Holy Union Sister Edna Marie LaRose, 90, died October 30 at the Catholic Memorial Home.

Born in Pawtucket, she was the daughter of the late Arthur and Aurore (Heroux) LaRose, and was a graduate of the former St. John Baptist Academy, Pawtucket. She was baptized Marie Aurore Rhea LaRose.

Sister LaRose entered the Holy Union Sisters in Groton, MA in 1947 and pronounced her vows on March 20, 1950. She attended Sacred Heart Teacher Training School in Groton; Merrimack College in Andover, MA; and received a bachelor’s degree from Rivier College, Nashua, NH. She also studied business administration for religious institutions at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.

Sister LaRose ministered as an elementary school teacher in Massachusetts and New York, and as a high school business education teacher in Massachusetts. She served as province secretary and treasurer from 1966 to 1971 and then joined the communications staff at the Holy Union Sisters headquarters in Rome, Italy. When she returned to the United States, she served as the secretary at Sacred Heart School, North Attleboro, Mass.

In 1979, she became the first Holy Union Sister to minister in the Christian Appalachian Project in Kentucky, and later worked with elderly members of her religious community in Lowell, MA. She also served as a pastoral assistant at St. Martha Church, Plainville, MA, where she worked in the Indo-Chinese Advocacy Program.

After completing an assignment in Rome, she volunteered in the Matthew 25 HIV/AIDS Ministry Program at Assumption Parish, Providence. She retired to the Landmark Assisted Living Center, Fall River, in 2006, before moving to the Catholic Memorial Home.

Sister LaRose is survived by a sister, Edna Beaulieu; and several nieces and nephews. She was also the sister of the late Leo LaRose.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated October 31 in the chapel of the Catholic Memorial Home. Burial was in Notre Dame Cemetery, Pawtucket.