Margaret Hackett, CSJ
September 25, 1911 - April 29, 2010
Margaret Hackett was born to Ira Eugene Hackett of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and Thecla Johnson from Gotenberg, Sweden on September 25, 1911, in Ironwood, Michigan. There were three girls, Margaret, Mary, and a daughter who died in infancy. The family moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where Margaret graduated from St. James Academy in 1930. During the depression the family moved to Wisconsin for Mr. Hackett’s job. Margaret stayed in St. Paul and worked for a family in the St. Catherine’s neighborhood, caring for their children. She happened to be taking the children for a walk on September 8, 1932, the birthday of the Blessed Virgin and the day on which new postulants entered the Sisters of St. Joseph. When Margaret saw the girls in their postulant uniforms saying goodbye to their families, she said to herself, “Well, you silly. That’s where you belong.” She entered the next February.
After her first vows in 1935, Margaret taught at St. Thomas the Apostle in Minneapolis, and St. Luke’s and Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul. In 1947 she went to the St. Paul girls’ home as superior and principal. When she became postulant mistress in 1959, she told her postulants they were not nearly the challenge the girls at the home had been. She followed her postulants into the novitiate and was novice mistress from 1960-1966, followed by more elementary school assignments.
Margaret’s official community record shows her as retired from the classroom in 1976, then retired again in 1984, and once more in 1997, when she moved to Bethany, a mere 86 years old. One of Margaret’s most joyous times were her “retirement” years in Charleston, West Virginia, as a hospital chaplain. She loved the birds and the flowers, and the company of her dear friend, Sister Mary Hicks. Mary’s death was a blow, but Margaret always lived in the present and for the future. She was not one to dwell on things that could not be. This clear-sightedness and trust in the Holy Spirit’s workings made her a good counselor of the young in schools and novitiate and a frank and loyal friend.
This same official record shows someone who loves to study. In the 1960s when the Church was experiencing a rebirth of theology, Margaret studied at Notre Dame for four summers. Later she became a reading specialist and in West Virginia studied to become a chaplain and a pastoral care professional at St. Francis Hospital in Charleston. Her study, as well as her natural bent, kept her open-minded and flexible, a woman of good sense and compassion.
In the 1950s novices were, as a rule, separated from the outside world. The class of 1959 got to go to the St. Kate’s library to pick out novels or other summer reading. Margaret took us swimming at the College pool, suggesting that if we needed spiritual motivation to enjoy ourselves, we could think of it as diving into grace.
Margaret died quietly on the evening of April 29, only five months shy of her 99th birthday. Her many friends, devoted nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, Sisters of St. Joseph and Consociates, and her beloved postulant class of 1959 celebrated the Mass of Christian burial on May 4 and followed her to her final resting place in Resurrection Cemetery. Rest in peace, Margaret. Thank you.
