Sister Ann Keating, C.S.C. (Sister M. Rose Angela)

Sister Ann Keating, CSC
(Sister M. Rose Angela)

December 6, 1925 –July 11, 2019

Entered the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Sacramento, California on July 31, 1943
Initial Profession of Vows on February 2, 1946

Sister Ann Keating said of herself in 1990 at nearing age 65, “I’m a lioness; if you touch my cubs, I’ll protect them.”  Sister had delivered at least 500 infants as a nurse-midwife during her 40-plus years in obstetric nursing at hospitals in California, Utah, and New Mexico.  Sister Ann died at Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana on July 11, 2019.

Betty Ann Keating grew up in Sacramento, California always wanting to be a nurse like her mother, Vern Francis Keating, who had died when Betty was a child.  Her father, William C. Keating, Sr., was a successful contractor.  Betty moved out of their large home to attend Holy Rosary Academy, a girls’ boarding school of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Woodland, 15 miles from Sacramento. Betty entered the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1943 only under the condition that she would be allowed to pursue her primal vocation of nursing.  Her insistence would normally have precluded her acceptance into a vowed life requiring obedience!  As Sister M. Rose Angela, she soon learned to temper her tone but never her principles.

Sister trained as a student nurse and graduated from Saint Mary of the Wasatch College, Salt Lake City, with a Bachelor of Science in 1949 and was certified as a Registered Nurse at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Sister soon returned to her baptismal name when customs changed after the Second Vatican Council.  By 1969, as Sister Ann Keating, she had earned a Master of Science from the University of Utah, also certifying as a nurse-midwife.  In 1970, already an experienced head nurse and director of nursing service at Holy Cross hospitals in Salt Lake City and Fresno, Sister Ann was asked to be on the faculty as an obstetrics instructor at Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital in Watts until 1974.  After three years back at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, Sister Ann’s expertise in midwifery education continued at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Women’s Hospital (1974-1976), Loma Linda University in San Bernadino (1976-1977), the University of San Francisco (1977-1982), and San Francisco General Hospital (1982-1984).

Sister Ann Keating was notoriously camera shy and shunned attention but graciously accepted the 1991 Woman of the Year Award granted by the Fresno, California Committee on the Status of Women (CSW). At the time, Sister Ann coordinated Women’s Health Services at Saint Agnes Medical Center, sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Fresno.  Sister also served on the Board of Directors for the Fresno Women’s Network and chaired a committee to provide opportunities for women to support each other in business, personal and professional growth by networking with one another.  Sister Ann remained in Fresno until 2004 when she retired to Saint Catherine by the Sea, Ventura.  There Ann pursued her interest in nurturing and became a Master Gardener in the civic community until 2017 when her ill health brought her to Saint Mary’s Convent where she died.  She said of herself, “I might not have had a child of my own, but I was a mother of many.”

You may wish to donate in Sister’s name to the Ministry with the Poor Fund at www.cscsisters.org
Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements with services.

Visitation will begin at 9:15 a.m. Thursday July 18, 2019, in Church of Our Lady of Loretto.  Prayers in the Presence of the Body with Memento will be held at 10:15 a.m. Thursday followed by Mass of the Resurrection.  Burial will follow in Our Lady of Peace Cemetery.

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