CONNORS, MARY ANN (1860-1941)

CONNORS, MARY ANN, Sister Kane of the Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph; superior at Chatham, 1891-97, 1903-09, 1915-21, and 1924-27; b. Chatham, 4 Mar 1860 (bap. 17 Mar 1860), d/o Moses Connors and Jane Kane; sister of James F. Connors; entered religious life, 1881; d. Chatham 24 Jul 1941.

Mary Ann Connors was the first Miramichi resident and the first native English-speaker to become head of the Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph at Chatham. As Mother Kane, she was the "leading spirit" in all the works and enterprises of the order, making a major contribution to the growth of both the Hotel Dieu Hospital and St Michael's Academy. She was thirty years of age when first named superior and sixty-six when she finished her fourth and final term. Altogether, this "woman of exceptional administrative ability" led the local community for twenty-one years. When she was not serving as superior she filled other important offices, such as that of mistress of novices.

In her second term as superior Connors reported that for the year which ended in May 1909, 365 inpatients and 587 outpatients had been treated at the Hotel Dieu. Eighty-five surgical operations had been performed, and nineteen deaths had occurred. During her third term, the hospital's nursing school was established. In 1933, six years after the conclusion of her final term, she celebrated the golden jubilee of her profession, being only the second member of the order at Chatham to do so. She was eighty-one at the time of her death.