Kathleen was born on May 4, 1924 in Providence, RI to Mary Gallagher Skenyon and Patrick Skenyon. She is survived by her sister, Peggy. Her four brothers, James, John, Leo and Vincent predeceased her.
Kathleen graduated from St. Patrick’s High School, Providence, RI in 1941. She worked at the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company as an operator during which time she attended night courses at Providence College Extension School (1944 – 46) and Edgewood Secretarial School (1945 – 46). She entered the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate from her home parish, St. Pius V, Providence on October 5, 1946. At her reception she received the religious name, Sister M. St. Anne. She made her first Profession of Vows on April 6, 1949 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center and her Final Vows on April 6, 1952 in Hawaii.
Sister Kathleen attended Maryknoll Teachers College at Maryknoll, NY where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education in 1951 and was assigned to Hawaii the same year, where she taught at Maryknoll Elementary School, in Honolulu’s Punahou district. In 1955 she worked in the Diocesan Catechetical Office for two years and then returned to Maryknoll Elementary School from 1957 – 61.
Subsequently, she taught at St. Augustine School, Waikiki in 1961 and St. Anthony School, Kalihi, from 1962–1966. She then served as librarian for Grades K–12 at St. Anthony School, Wailuku, Maui, from 1966–72. The years 1968–72 also found her studying during the summers at the University of Hawaii where she earned an M.A. in Library Science. She also studied Braille in 1979 and in 1984, sign language.
During the years that followed Sister Kathleen served at St. Ann’s Elementary School as Librarian with responsibility for CCD and religious classes, for children and adults. Her librarian expertise had her working at Kahumana, a residential center for the mentally ill in Waianae from 1979 – 84. Her work as librarian continued in Nanakuli, where she also served as a substitute teacher from 1984 – 88. She assisted in setting up a new library on the Island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia and trained U.S. Peace Corps members in library preparation. In 1991 she was invited to American Samoa where she worked for three years setting up two high schools and two elementary school libraries and training librarians to manage them. In 1994, she retired to Nanakuli and did volunteer work and from 1996 to 2002 tutoring English and Math at Leeward Community College in Waianae.
Sister Kathleen returned to Ossining, NY in 2002 due to ill health. There she resided at the Maryknoll Sisters Home Care Unit, engaged in a ministry of prayer and correspondence. She died peacefully on the morning of May 30, 2016.
A Vespers Service will be held on Monday, June 6th at 4:15p.m. in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. A funeral Mass of the Resurrection will be on Tuesday, June 7th at 11:00 a.m. also in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. Interment will follow in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the Center grounds.