Sister Henrietta Clare Pickles, OP, of Dominican Convent, Sparkill, New York, died on January 22, 2014 in Jacobi Hospital. Born in Brooklyn, NY on February 20, 1916, Harriet was the daughter of Thomas and Frances Keenan Pickles. She entered the Dominican Congregation of Our Lady of the Rosary in Sparkill on July 2, 1934 and received the name Sister Henrietta Clare, professing her first vows in 1936 and her final vows in 1941.
Sister Henrietta Clare earned a BA in Education from Manhattan College in 1951 and an MA in Elementary Education from City College of NY in 1973. Sister was a teacher who served in the Archdiocese of New York and the dioceses of Brooklyn and Syracuse. She taught at St. Rita, Staten Island, NY (1939-44); St. Rita, Bronx, NY (1944-48); St. Brendan, Bronx, NY (1948-51); St. John Chrysostom, Bronx, NY (1951-52); St. Paul, Norwich, NY (1952-53); St. Mary, Fulton, NY (1953-54); St. Helena, Bronx, NY (1954-66); St. Edmund, Brooklyn, NY (1966-67); Mary Queen of Heaven (1968-78) and St. Ann, Bronx, NY (1978-82). From 1982-2002 Sr. Henrietta Clare was a substitute teacher and bookstore manager at Msgr. Scanlan HS in the Bronx.
Sister Henrietta Clare is predeceased by her parents and siblings, Thomas, Sr. Marie Magdalen Pickles, OP, Helen, Dolores, William and Edward. She is survived by 14 nieces and nephews and many grandnieces, grandnephews, and cousins.
Sister Henrietta Clare was a faithful minister in the field of education for sixty-three years. She enjoyed life, reading a good book, and she loved to travel. She was faithful to the God she loved and to the life she chose as a Dominican sister. We are grateful for her almost eighty years in the congregation, and we thank God for her life and her goodness. May the Lord shine His light upon her and give her eternal rest in the kingdom of heaven.