By Dan McWilliams
Sister Mary Yvette Gillen, RSM, a Sister of Mercy for 64 years who served for many years as a pastoral associate at St. Therese Parish in Clinton, St. Joseph Parish in Norris, and Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa, died on Sunday, Nov. 2, in Nashville. She was 83.
Sister Yvette was born Janice Sue Gillen on Feb. 23, 1942, in Findlay, Ohio, to Yvo and Grace Wise Gillen. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1961 in Cincinnati, making first vows in 1964 and final vows in 1969. Sister Yvette taught for 20 years in Ohio and Tennessee, including at St. Mary School at Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville.
Beginning in 1976, she ministered as a chaplain and assistant director of pastoral care at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Knoxville for 10 years. She found her work as chaplain on the oncology floor most rewarding, helping the dying and their families.
As a pastoral associate in Clinton, Alcoa, and Norris, she visited homes, hospitals, and nursing homes; gave sacramental instructions; and coordinated RCIA programs.
Sister Yvette became a fixture in Clinton after serving at St. Therese Parish from 1974 to 2013. She served as a volunteer there from 1974-85, then went full time as pastoral associate from 1985-2013.
Clinton was a special time in her life, she told The East Tennessee Catholic.
“Yes, it was,” Sister Yvette said, “working with different ministries I enjoyed very much. The first several years I worked with Father Bill Gahagan and the youth. The last several years it was pastoral work with families and RCIA from 1985 on. During that time, I worked with many different priests. Father Gahagan—he’s the one who started me there.”
Sister Yvette became known for her roller skating, raising $45,000 in five years for the Kidney Foundation and for Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s Columbus Home. She was proud of her nickname, “The Skating Nun.”
Sister Yvette told The East Tennessee Catholic how her religious vocation began.
“I always had sort of a desire to be a Sister, but I think that was more manifested when I was in my freshman year of high school. We had nine grades in our Catholic school, and I thought at the time I had a vocation,” Sister Yvette said. “I worked at the priests’ house, and the pastor had two nieces who were Sisters of Mercy. I met them, and they said, ‘Why don’t you try our aspirants’ school?’
“So, I went to the aspirants’ school my sophomore and junior years, and in my senior year I moved in with my sister. I still had vocation in the back of my mind; it would come and go a little bit in my senior year. But then I met a lady who talked to me about Glenmary, which was fascinating to me because my father was a farmer from way back and I liked to do things out in the open. I was told that Tennessee and Kentucky were home missions, and I saw a picture of a Sister on a tractor. Even though I didn’t drive then, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s me. I want to do that.’
“But I still kept in contact with the Sisters of Mercy, and I talked to a Sister at (Our Lady of the) Pines where I went to school in Fremont, Ohio. She said, ‘Honey, whatever you decide, but we really would like you to come back to the Mercys.’ So, I prayed about it and I entered the Sisters of Mercy. I find it ironic that I’m in the area that I would probably have been in with the Glenmarys, because they were in Tennessee at the time when I moved here.”
In 2020, Sister Yvette retired to Mercy Convent in Nashville.
Sister Yvette was preceded in death by her parents and by her siblings Norman, LaDonna Koening (Homer), and Ruth Ann Phillips (Harry). Sister Yvette is survived by her sister, Beverly Nye (Richard); her sister-in-law, Nancy Gillen; many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews; and her Mercy community.
The funeral Mass for Sister Yvette was held Nov. 12 at Mercy Convent in Nashville with Father Bill McKenzie serving as celebrant. A burial service followed in Calvary Cemetery in Nashville.
Memorial services for Sister Yvette are planned at St. Therese and Our Lady of Fatima churches.