Sister Dolly was born and raised in Baltimore and made her First Holy Communion at the Baltimore Basilica (now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary).

“All the other little girls wanted to be Sisters,” she says, “I didn’t!”  But by high school, she felt drawn to religious life and experienced the call in odd places—in class, at the beach, while window shopping.

She visited the Mission Helper Center in Baltimore County and was, she recalls, “so impressed with the zeal and hospitality of those Sisters.  They seemed so happy, and the work of the Community was just what I was looking for—people-to-people ministry.”

She joined the Community in 1950 and her first mission was in Henderson, North Carolina, a state that would call her back many times over the next decades.  She taught religious education in parishes in Pennsylvania, New York and Arizona before returning to North Carolina to serve in the Diocese of Raleigh.

She traveled throughout North Carolina teaching catechists and holding classes and study groups for both youngsters and adults.  She also taught seminarians how to teach religion.

She served for five years in Pittsburgh, preparing master catechists to train new catechists throughout the Diocese, and in the Archdiocese of Baltimore as a consultant on early childhood education for special needs children and as pastoral associate at Our lady of Fatima.

Back in North Carolina at Elizabeth of Hungary in Raeford, she was among the nation’s first Sisters to serve as pastoral administrator in a non-priest parish; she was the first in North Carolina.  After six years in Raeford, she was named pastoral administrator of St. Joan of Arc in Plymouth.

Sr. Dolly “semi-retired” in 2005, but by 2006 she had been named manager of the Mission Helper Center and in 2008, was elected vice president of the Community.  For the last 10 years she has been a vital member of the Mission Advancement Department, recording incoming contributions and playing a major role in fundraising special events.

Now living at St. Elizabeth’s Retirement Community, Sr. Dolly visits residents providing spiritual support as needed.  She is currently in Phone Ministry, calling on members of the Mission Helper and St. Elizabeth families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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