Crowley, Joan Frances

Born April 4, 1919, Chicago, Illinois; died October 6, 2009, Dubuque, Iowa. Joan Frances Crowley, BVM was born Dorothy Helen Crowley to Helen Newell Crowley and Sydney Crowley. She entered the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8, 1939. Sr. Joan Frances attended St. Ignatius Grade School and Immaculata High School and earned her bachelors degree from the College of Great Falls in Montana in 1946. She earned her masters degree from Marquette University in 1954 and joined the history faculty of Mundelein College in Chicago in 1962. She taught classes on Russian and French history and took student groups on two trips to Russia. As a result of her co teaching a Marxism and Communism class with Daniel Vaillancourt, Sr. Joan Frances befriended Svetlana Allilueva Peters, Josef Stalin's daughter. Through Sr. Joan Frances encouragement, Svetlana, who was living in Wisconsin at the time, visited Mundelein College and gave a guest lecture in 1987. Their friendship continued through correspondence until 1996. Sr. Joan Frances died in Dubuque, Iowa, on October 6, 2009.