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Sister F.A. McDade | Music instructor, 96

Sister Francis Assisi McDade, 96, a music instructor, died Monday at Assisi House, the retirement residence of the Sisters of St. Francis in Aston, from complications of a stroke.

Sister Francis Assisi McDade
Sister Francis Assisi McDadeRead more

Sister Francis Assisi McDade, 96, a music instructor, died Monday at Assisi House, the retirement residence of the Sisters of St. Francis in Aston, from complications of a stroke.

For more than 40 years, Sister Francis Assisi chose the music and readings for liturgies at St. Francis Convent in Aston. She also taught music to the novices and played the organ and piano.

In the 1960s, she produced two albums of music recorded by the sisters. Proceeds from the sales benefited Neumann College, where she taught music and theology from 1965 to 1973.

She grew up in Trenton as Mary Elizabeth McDade and took the name Francis Assisi after professing her vows as a Sister of St. Francis in 1932.

Sister Francis Assisi earned a bachelor's degree from Villanova University and a master's degree in theology from Notre Dame University.

In her early career, she taught elementary grades and music at St. Elizabeth and St. Benedict Schools in Philadelphia and at St. Aloysius School in Pottstown, and was a teacher and then principal at Resurrection School in Chester.

Sister Francis Assisi is survived by a sister, Margaret Mooney, and nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today at Assisi House, 600 Red Hill Rd., Aston. Friends may call at 9:30 a.m. Burial will be in Our Lady of Angels Cemetery, Aston.