(13 Sept. 1913-8 March 1998), member of religious congregation. (Sister Elizabeth McPherson, RHSJ) Born in the Greenfield area of Glengarry County, probably at her parents’ home on Lot 20 in the 3rd Concession of Township. Parents: Dan McPherson and his wife Isabel MacDonell. Her high school education was at Iona Academy, St. Raphael’s, GC. She entered the congregation of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, being received as a postulant in 1935 and making her final profession in 1940. At Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston, Ont., she trained as a nurse, and after qualification as an RN she remained at Hotel Dieu Hospital, becoming, by 1945, assistant superintendent of nurses there. In 1956, she became local superior and administrator of her congregation at Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston. From 1959-1965, she was provincial superior of St. Joseph Province of her congregation. During that time, among many other activities, she was involved in establishing a mission of her congregation in the Dominican Republic. After her term as provincial superior ended, she worked as an administrator in hospital nursing for her congregation at Chatham, N. B., then in 1971 she became local superior of the sisters at St. Bernard and St. George Hospitals, in Chicago. From 1974, she was the hospital administrator at Hotel Dieu Hospital, St. Catharines.

     On retiring in Aug. 1980, she spent a period of sabbatical leave at a theological college in Washington or New York. In 1982, she returned to administrative duties at Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston. Sister Elizabeth McPherson had a long, strenuous, varied, and exceedingly active career as a nursing sister, and as an administrator in the nursing side of hospital work. In Aug. 1988 she celebrated her 50th and in Sept. 1997 her 60th anniversary as a member of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph. She died at St. Joseph’s Provincial House, Amherstview, Ont. The burial was in St. Mary’s cemetery, Kingston. “This strong and gentle woman never boasted her many deeds but quietly embraced the challenges that were placed before her with faith and compassion.”

     Her brother Ranald Joseph McPherson is also included in this dictionary. Their sister, Miss Ann M. McPherson was a private secretary to United States Steel executives in Chicago and Pittsburgh. When she was honoured in Alexandria by friends and family on her 90th birthday, Sister Elizabeth McPherson was among those who attended. (Glengarry News 13 Sept. 1989)

Glengarry News 25 March 1998 (QF) * “Sister Elizabeth McPherson Marks 50 Years with Hospitallers,” GN 31 Aug. 1988 (with biog. information, portrait) * Jessie Deslauriers, Like a Bay Tree, Ever Green: the History of St. Joseph Province, Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph (1984) 22, 50-51 (with portrait), 58 * St. Catherine of Sienna Parish Greenfield, Ontario 1894-1994 (1994) 39 * takes her temporary vows, GN 31 Dec. 1937