Former local woman remembered for work as nun
A former Uniontown woman is being remembered for her extraordinary life, which saw her became a nun at age 46. Sister Elinor Marie Farrell died Sept. 16 at age 84 in Phelps Hospital, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.
Throughout her life, she had jobs that took her all over the world, to Washington, D.C., Yugoslavia, Korea, Germany, Hong Kong and New York.
“She was an extraordinary woman,’ said Walter “Buzz Storey of Uniontown, former editor of the Herald-Standard, who had known her since their childhood.
She was born Feb. 24, 1918, in Uniontown, to John Farrell and Nora Moran Farrell. Her father was superintendent of Uniontown Hospital. She had two brothers, both of whom predeceased her, and is survived by her sister-in-law Carol Farrell, her cousin Edward Solarz and his daughter Barbara.
Sister Farrell grew up in the parish of St. John the Evangelist in Uniontown and graduated from Uniontown High School in 1935.
After high school, she continued her education, enrolling in night school to study secretarial science at Cleveland College and then later studying at the Stenotype Institute in Washington, D.C.
After her studies, Sister Farrell began working as a newspaper reporter as well as a medical secretary for a group practice of physicians. After three years, she was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then later with a law firm in Washington, D.C. From 1960 to 1965, Sister Farrell worked for the U.S. Information Service in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Seoul, Korea, and Bonn, Germany.
During her tour of duty in Korea, she became acquainted with Sisters Gabriella Mulherin and Mary Hock of the Maryknoll sisters. When Sister Farrell was free from her responsibilities at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, she often volunteered her services at Catholic organizations serving the Korean people.
After Sister Farrell left Korea, she worked in Bonn. It was during this time that she reflected on her experiences with the Sisters in Korea and began to realize that she was called to religious life as a Maryknoll sister. She first applied for entrance in May 1964 at age 46.
When she wrote regarding the possibility of entrance into the Maryknoll congregation, the vocation director replied that, while Maryknoll was pleased to know of her interest in mission, due to her age and the nature of their work, she was too old.
However, Sister Farrell continued to feel the call to Maryknoll, so in October 1964, she wrote directly to Mother Mary Colman, asking that her request for entrance be reconsidered. Mother Colman did reconsider based on the fact that Sister Farrell had so many qualifications in her favor, such as her experience on the missions, her good health and her ardent desire to be a Maryknoll sister.
Sister Farrell’s dream to become a Maryknoll sister was fulfilled when she made her first profession of vows June 24, 1968, and her final profession June 18, 1971, at Maryknoll, N.Y.
After profession, she worked as the personal secretary for the Maryknoll Society’s assistant director of development, the Rev. Bernard P. Byrne. When she made known her desire for a mission assignment in 1971, she received an assignment to the Hong Kong region in 1971.
There she worked as an administrative assistant and secretary of Caritas, Hong Kong, and contributed her secretarial skills to the Maryknoll Society, the Maryknoll Sisters Regional Governance and the Holy Spirit Diocesan Seminary. Starting in 1979, Sister Farrell spent two days a week working at the United Nations Office for Vietnamese Refugees.
In 1981, Sister Farrell returned to the Maryknoll sisters center on her renewal and accepted a position in which she placed her secretarial skills at the service of the Maryknoll Nursing Home, the center council, physical plant and the employee personnel office.
In 1984, she was assigned to the western United States region with residence in Gallup, N.M.
While in Gallup, she was the secretary to Bishop Jerome Hastrich, and she worked in the chancery office.
Sister Farrell returned to the center in 1986, where she worked for the Maryknoll Society for four years and at the Maryknoll sisters admissions office for three years before retiring in 1994.