Catholic worker pioneer dies at age 91

Ruth Ann Heaney--Catholic Worker pioneer, single mother, Benedictine nun and advocate for prisoners' rights--passed away Dec. 19 in Columbia, Mo. She died one day short of her 92nd birthday.

As a student at St. Mary's College, South Bend, Ind., Heaney was inspired by lectures by Catholic Worker founders Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. When she graduated in 1936 with a degree in social work, Heaney became acquainted with members of the Catholic Worker movement in Chicago and later in Milwaukee, where she met and married Larry Heaney, founder of Milwaukee's Holy Family Catholic Worker House.

As newlyweds, the Heaneys moved to the Catholic Worker farm in Easton, Pa. "You'd think it was Christmas," Heany said. "The barn was built on a hillside so there were different levels, and we could hear pigs shuffling about underneath us during Mass. We'd have dialogue Masses, even way back then."

The Heaneys returned to Milwaukee where they began to save money for a Catholic Worker farm. They eventually moved to Starkenburg, Mo., and farmed with Marty and Gertrude Paul.

Larry Heaney died of pneumonia in 1949, leaving Ruth with six children whom she raised in that rural community. She kept the farm and also taught school. Of that time, she said, she was blessed with good health and was able to "work hard and not be lonely."

The family lived frugally and tried to apply Maurin's green revolution. For years they did not have electricity and carried water from a well. She said, "It was easier to be poor in the country where you've got some control over things than it would be to be poor in the city."

The farm persists to this day. Heaney entertained friends there last spring at the Catholic Worker Midwest Resistance Retreat.

After all her children were adults, Ruth entered the Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Peace of Columbia, Mo. She made final profession in 1979 with her family in attendance, including 12 grandchildren.

As a Benedictine nun, Heaney began a ministry to prisoners at the Missouri State Penitentiary. She visited prisoners, wrote letters for them, taught classes. She worked tirelessly to improve prison conditions, which at times put her at odds with prison authorities. Her visitation rights were suspended four times. A stroke in 2003 forced her to stop visiting the prison, though she continued correspondence with prisoners.

For her work on behalf of prisoners, she was awarded the Elaine Aber Humanitarian Award from the Missouri Association for Social Welfare, the Humanitas Award from her alma mater, and the papal award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Heaney is survived by her three daughters, Mary Lisa Pennebaker of Clinton, Miss., Therese Heaney of Granite City, Ill., and Anne Heaney of New York; her sons, Joe Heaney of Rhineland, Mo., and John Heaney of Aloha, Ore.; 13 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Her husband, a son, Tommy, a sister and brothers preceded her in death.

[Rosalie Riegle, professor emerita from Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw, Mich., is the author of several oral histories of the Catholic Worker movement.]

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