Sister Nancy Bone, MM

Born: October 20, 1911
Entered: December 23, 1930
Died: April 2, 1990

We are gathered here once again as a community to celebrate a Liturgy of Resurrection for one of our Sisters who has entered into the fullness of life. Sister Nancy Bone’s 60 years as a Maryknoll Sister ended early on the morning of April 2 in our Maryknoll Nursing Home.

Nancy Eleanor Bone was born on October 20, 1911 to Anna Browne and Robert David Bone in Kansas City, Missouri. Nancy was just eight years old when her mother died, so arrangements were made for her to live with her Aunt. The deep relationship that grew between them motivated some of Nancy’s significant decisions throughout life, including her entrance into the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis rather than Maryknoll, where she had originally applied. She wanted to be near her Aunt. However, less than two months later, she left the novitiate and wrote again to Mother Mary Joseph at Maryknoll, “Even when I entered there I had a sneaking feeling that my vocation was to the Foreign Missions.”

Her Aunt gave her blessing, but Nancy’s father was very opposed. In her forthright way of relating the facts, Nancy commented, “I fought the matter out and won his reluctant consent”. So Nancy joined a large group of postulants here in December of 1930. At Reception she received the name Sister Rose Virginia.

Always an exceptionally bright student, Nancy had begun her higher studies at Kansas City Junior College before entrance, then was sent as a novice to the College of Mount St. Vincent, New York, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1935, with a B.A. degree in French and Philosophy. Having made her First Profession of Vows in 1933, Sister received an assignment to our Mission in Los Angeles where she taught two years in the school for the Japanese. Sister’s Final Profession was made there in 1936.

Twelve years in Hawaii followed, in the Punahou and Waikiki Schools where her enthusiasm and love of teaching were given full rein and gained her the lasting respect and friendship of her students. The Islands also afforded many opportunities for cultural enrichment and were a source of great delight for this devoted student of nature.

Assigned back to New York in 1949, Sister Nancy taught for a time in Chinatown’s Transfiguration Parish before being sent to Fordham University where she received in 1954 her Masters degree in Philosophy. Change came again and diploma in hand Sister found herself facing her new students in the Maryknoll Convent Secondary School in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Here she taught mostly English Language and Literature, using her gifts of storytelling with a dramatic flair well as remembered by her students. As one of them retells it, Sister Nancy used Shakespeare’s works as a universal language that transcended cultural differences and articulated a sense of mission in a new way for them.

Sister Nancy studied Cantonese, but never had a chance to master it, though she was fluent in French and Latin and later learned Biblical Greek. Extracurricular activities after school involved coaching the Speech and Drama Clubs. From the awards won, both coach and performers must have been very good.

During the Hong Kong years, Sister confided her concern for her Aunt who was living alone in California, in failing health. She had visited her Aunt on her regular Renewal trip to the U.S. in 1962 and enjoyed a visit with her half sister and family, but the distance and the separation remained a worry. When the opportunity was offered in 1968 for further studies, Nancy enrolled in the University of San Francisco for a Masters Program with an emphasis in Scripture and Contemporary Theology. Many changes were taking place in religious life and in the Church since Vatican II and she was caught up in the challenges. This arrangement allowed her to look after her Aunt as well, so she stayed on in California after her studies where she was involved in Adult Religious Education and later returned to teaching both in Arizona and Los Angeles. Her health did begin to decline which led to her retirement from teaching and her assignment from the Western Region to Monrovia, California in 1979. When Sister’s condition became worse, she was transferred to the Nursing Home at the Center last December. It was here with other members of her Group that Nancy celebrated her 60th Anniversary as a Maryknoll Sister in February.

Those who knew her best describe her as one who always sought to embrace God’s Will as she perceived it, a person with a sense of wonder and a great thirst for knowledge, a marvelous teller of tales whose humor and powers of expression were ever a source of “quotable quotes.” One newspaper interviewer said she was “a mine of endless anecdotes and observations.”

As we reflect on and celebrate the life, death and Resurrection of Sister Nancy Bone, we remember in a very special way her friend and family. The words found in the first chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians – one of Sister’s favorite texts used in today’s Mass – speak of ultimate peace and fulfillment:

“For in Christ our release is secured… therein lies the richness of God’s free grace lavished upon us, imparting full wisdom and insight.”

Her release is secured and the yearning for completeness is fully satisfied. Let us rejoice and be glad!

We welcome Fr. Peter Ruggere, our Maryknoll brother, who will lead us in this Liturgy of New Life.