Sr. Leone L’Heureux
June 16, 1909 – July 25, 2007
Peacefully, on July 25th, 2007, Sister Léone L’Heureux (Sr. Henri-du-St-Sacrement) at Taché Centre, St.Boniface. Léone, the eighth child of a family of ten, was born in St. Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba on June 16, 1909. Her parents were Henry L’Heureux and Cordélia Robert.
Léone went to school at the convent in St. Pierre and completed her studies at St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Boniface. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Outremont, Québec in 1926 and made profession on August 25, 1928.
Many students benefited from Sister Henri-du-St-Sacrement’s teaching at St. Mary’s Academy, St. Jean Baptiste, St. Joseph’s Academy, St. Pierre-Jolys, Sacré-Coeur, Holy Cross and St. Mary’s School. Besides being a classroom teacher, Sister gave piano lessons. During these years as a teacher Sister Henri dedicated herself to many other tasks such as working in the sacristy, training altar boys and being in charge of boarders. She enjoyed teaching immensely and her students greatly appreciated her because of her sense of humor and her playful nature. After teaching in a school setting for twenty years, Sister Henri-du-St-Sacrement devoted herself as sacristan at St. Mary’s Cathedral for ten years. Following a call and having prepared herself by learning sign language at summer sessions, she taught Catechism to deaf children. For ten years, she lived at the Kiwanis Centre for the Deaf where she shared fully the residents’ experience. She served that community in a variety of ways and even taught sign language to the elderly and to staff members who were interested.
In 1976, Sister Léone received the Bene Merenti medal for her years of dedication at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at the Centre for the Deaf. When she retired in 1978, Sister Léone continued to serve her religious community joyfully. In April 2004, because of her failing health, Sister entered the infirmary and then moved to Taché Centre in 2005.
To mourn her passing, Sister Léone leaves a sister, Orise, a sister-in-law, Pearl, nieces and nephews, good friends and the members of her religious community. She was predeceased by her parents, her sisters Irène, Lucille, Anais and Annette, her brothers Eddie, Ulysse and Lévi and her brothers-in-law, Paul Johnson and Henri Musso.