A Life of Mission and Mercy:
Sr. Eileen Smith, DHS
December 31, 1921 – June 17, 2025
Sr. Eileen Smith, DHS, 103, a member of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, entered her eternal rest on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at St. Joseph Living Center in Windham, where she had been in residence since 2018.
Rose Eileen was born December 31, 1921, in Attleboro, MA, the daughter of the late Joseph A. and Rose (Soucy) Smith, the seventh of fifteen children. She entered religious life in 1940 and made her religious profession on August 20, 1945, at the Provincial House in Putnam, CT. She was then known as Sr. Mary Joseph. She received a B.A. from Diocesan Sisters’ College in South Woodstock, CT, and an LPN Certificate from Grassland School of Practical Nursing in Valhalla, NY.
Following her religious profession, Sr. Eileen served in many varied ministries. She first taught in schools staffed by the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in Waterbury, CT, and Alabama.
Sr. Eileen was among the first groups of Sisters to go to Chile when the congregation opened missions in that country in 1963 at the request of the Chilean bishops. She served in Antofagasta and Chañaral, Chile, from 1963 to 1966, where she taught and visited families in their homes. She returned to the United States and taught ESL classes at Annhurst College until 1969, at which time she enrolled in an LPN course at Grassland School of Practical Nursing in Valhalla, NY. Upon completing this in 1970, Sr. Eileen returned to Antofagasta and established a clinic there to care for the sick.
Returning to the United States in 1972, she worked as a nurse in Selma, Alabama, and then at St. Clare Convalescent Home in Newport, RI. She later ministered as a nurse under the Migrant Health Services in Hastings and Haines, Florida, and spent many summer months from 1974 to 1976 among the migrants of the East Coast in AL, DE, VA, NC, and MD. She returned to Antofagasta in 1976 and worked there as a nurse for another 10 years, followed by a year at the clinic of the Haitian Health Foundation in Jérémie, Haiti—one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere—before returning to the clinic in Antofagasta, Chile. In 1994, she served as a clinic nurse among the migrants of Painter, VA, before retiring to the Provincial House in Putnam in 1995. She joined the community at St. Joseph Living Center in 2018.
Sr. Eileen is survived by the Daughters of the Holy Spirit spiritual family – her Sisters in community, the Consecrated Seculars, and the Associates – as well as many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. She was predeceased by her brothers Austin, Paul, Ralph, Joseph, Gerald, Noel, James, and Thomas, and by her sisters Marie, Ruth, Theresa, Janet, Claire, and Sr. Mary Lou, DHS.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at 11:00 AM at Corpus Christi Parish/St. Joseph Church, 99 Jackson Street, Willimantic, CT. Burial followed at 2:30 PM in St. Mary Cemetery, Putnam.
Donations may be made in her memory to the DHS Retirement Fund, P.O. Box 497, Putnam, CT 06260.
Gilman & Valade Funeral Homes handled the arrangements.