Sister Eileen Michele Looney, OP of the Dominican Sisters, Sparkill, New York, died on October 18, 2018 in Montefiore Nyack Hospital, Nyack, NY. She was 79 years old.
Born in New York, NY on February 1, 1939, Virginia (Ginger) was the daughter of Michael and Marie Ryan Looney. She entered the Dominican Congregation of Our Lady of the Rosary in Sparkill on September 8, 1957 and received the name Sister Eileen Michele. She professed her first vows in 1959 and her final vows in 1964.
For more than thirty years, Sister Eileen Michele ministered in the field of childcare. She served from 1959–1966 at Cardinal McCloskey Home in White Plains, NY, from 1966-1968 at St. Ignatius Day Nursery in Manhattan, and then returned to Cardinal McCloskey from 1968-1980. For one year, 1980-1981, Sister Eileen Michele worked at Manhattanville College as an administrative assistant before going to Easton, MD. For the next 29 years, Sister Eileen Michele’s clerical skills were invaluable at St. Peter and Paul School from 1981-1991 and then at the Chesapeake Head Injury Center until 2010. In 2016 Sister Eileen came to Dominican Convent where she resided until her death.
Sister Eileen Michelle is predeceased by her parents Michael and Marie Ryan Looney and her sister Eileen Lundgren. She is survived by her dear friends, Sr. Genevieve Marie Dorrian, Peg Dorrian, Katherine Smith, Barbara Houston, and Jeannie Jorge.
Sister Eileen Michele was a gentle woman whose positive attitude and joy-filled spirit made a difference in the lives of those who knew her, especially during theselast two years at Dominican Convent. She served her God and her congregation faithfully for over sixty years as a Dominican Sister of Sparkill. We thank God for her life and her goodness, and we pray that she may enjoy the fullness of life in the presence of the God she loved and so faithfully served. We will miss her presence among us.