Born and raised in Baltimore, Sister Dolly remembers making her First Holy Communion: “All the other little girls wanted to be Sisters when they grew up,” she says. “I did not!”

But by high school, she felt drawn to religious life and experienced the call at odd times and in unexpected places—in class, at the beach, while window shopping.
Eventually she visited the Mission Helpers at their Convent in Baltimore County. “I was so impressed with the zeal and hospitality of those Sisters,” she says. “Every Sister seemed happy, and the work of the Community was just what I was looking for—people-to-people ministry.”

In her early years she was called to parishes and taught religion in Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona and North Carolina in the Diocese of Raleigh. There, she traveled the state teaching catechists how to teach religion and holding classes and study groups for both youngsters and adults, including seminarians.

At St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Raeford, North Carolina, she was among the nation’s first Sisters to serve as a pastoral administrator in a non-priest parish. A neighboring priest did a Sunday liturgy, and Sr. Dolly did everything else: finances, physical plant, faith formation, and visiting in homes, hospitals, nursing homes and jails. She was later named pastoral administrator at St. Joan of Ac parish in Plymouth, North Carolina.

She planned to retire in 2005, but instead returned to Mission Helper Center in Baltimore, where served as vice president and is an integral part of the Mission Advancement efforts of the Community.

Sr. Dolly holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s in Education, both from Loyola University Maryland.