Submitted by: Dan Rich
Irene V. Ranaghan
Sept. 2, 1906 - Feb. 12, 2001
South Bend Tribune 2/14/2001
Irene V. Ranaghan, 94, of St. Vincent
Street, South Bend, Ind., died in Christ on Monday evening, Feb.
12, in her home. She was born on Sept. 2, 1906, in New York City,
to Joseph and Mary Jane (Mathers) Flanagan.
On Dec. 26, 1935, in the Carmelite Church in
Manhattan, Irene Flanagan married John F. Ranaghan of County
Down, Northern Ireland. The Ranaghans lived for many years in New
York. After his retirement they began spending the summer and
fall in South Bend, and moved here permanently in the mid-1970s.
Mr. Ranaghan died in 1988. Surviving Mrs. Ranaghan is her
son, Kevin (Dorothy) Ranaghan of South Bend, with whom she lived
since 1988. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Anne
(Ronald) Linczer of Mishawaka, Mary Faith (Eric) Hall
of Denver, Colo., Susan Ranaghan, Christine Ranaghan, Kevin John
Ranaghan and Monica Ranaghan, all of South Bend; seven
great-grandchildren survive her also, Edward, Grace, John,
William and Claudia Linczer, and Beatrice and Eva Hall.
Mrs. Ranaghan was one of twelve children and
is survived by her sister, Marcy Luizzo of Glen Oaks, N.Y.
She was preceded in death by brothers and sisters, Sarah, Thomas,
Florence, Katherine and Helen Flanagan, all of whom died in
childhood, and by Joseph Flanagan, Anna Connolly, Theresa McAvey,
Alice Tavolacci and Martin Flanagan, all of whom enjoyed
full lives.
She was a serious and devout Catholic, and a
member of Sacred Heart Parish, Notre Dame. She liked to refer to
herself as the "grandmother of the Catholic Charismatic
Renewal." For most of her life she was a daily communicant
and, in recent years, prayed with the daily televised Mass. At
St. Helena's Church in New York City and at St. Vincent's Church
in Delray Beach, Fla., she joined with other women in the
charitable works of the parish. For many years she participated
in charismatic prayer meetings and was keenly interested in
promoting Christian unity. She was a devotee of the theatre, an
avid reader, and an engaging conversationalist. She was generous
in so many ways but particularly liked to brighten every family
birthday with chocolate cherries, cremes, and toffees from The
Philadelphia.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at
9:30 a.m. on Friday, with Rev. John Riley, C.S.C., presiding in
the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus.
Entombment will follow at St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park in
Granger, Ind. Friends may call from 3 to 8 p.m. on Thursday in
the HICKEY Funeral Home, 17131 Cleveland Road, where a wake
service will begin at 7 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made
to Trinity School, 107 S. Greenlawn Avenue, South Bend, IN 46617.