She Died at Age 22

Miss Margaret Anna Yahner was born in Hastings, Cambria County, PA, on July 15, 1907; she was one of 11 children. Margaret attended St. Bernard School in Hastings, which had opened in 1915 and staffed by Scranton IHMs. Margaret entered the IHMs on August 14, 1926, and was received on December 29, 1926; at that time, she was given the name Marie Immaculate. Sister Marie Immaculate was professed on January 22, 1929.

Sister Immaculate served as a teacher at St. Mary Elementary School in Avoca, PA. A little more than a year later, she finished teaching school on Friday, April 18, 1930 and became ill on Sunday evening, April 20. Sister Immaculate was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Carbondale.  She did not appear to be seriously ill until April 24. Newspaper accounts speculated that it was a blood clot which caused her death the next day.  Sister Immaculate was only 22 years of age. Her parents did not make it to her bedside when she died. She was buried in Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery in Finch Hill, Greenfield Township, PA.

Why the title of this article? Sister Immaculate had two sisters who entered the Order of the Sisters of St. Benedict. Our Sister Serenus, IHM, was her younger sister. Why did Sister Immaculate choose the IHMs? We will never know, but we are grateful she did.