Dominican Sister of Peace Vincent de Paul Hutton, OP, (111) died on December 16, 2022, at Sansbury Care Center, St. Catharine, Kentucky. At 111 years of age and nearly 90 years of religious life, she was the oldest living woman religious in the United States.
Sr. Vincent de Paul was born Mary Magdalen in 1911. Her parents, Flora Yelton and Henry Hutton, raised eight children in Cuba, IL. After working for several years following high school graduation, she entered the Congregation in 1932, made her first profession in 1933, and took her final vows in 1936. Next year she would have celebrated her 90th jubilee of faithful service!
Sr. Vincent held a Bachelor of Arts degree in Math and Spanish from Nazareth College. She studied Physics and Radiobiology as well, and put that study to good use in her long ministry of education.
Sr. Vincent was a model of Dominican itinerancy. She began teaching in 1933 in Indiana, and in her more than five decades as an educator and administrator moved to Kentucky, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia. She was strict and had high expectations but was respected as well. One of her male students of physics noted that she was the best teacher he ever had.
After retiring from education in 1985, Sr. Vincent joined the Congregation’s Finance team, where she built a reputation for being organized, conscientious, and absolutely dogged about the accuracy of the reports that she prepared. Her reputation for seriousness, however, did not squash her sense of humor – she showed up at a community “talent show” in knickers and a hat, and played the harmonica.
As the century turned in 1999, so did Sr. Vincent, retiring from active ministry to volunteer in the Recycling Center at St. Catharine’s Dominican Earth Center. It was important to her to do meaningful work, and that was work she was able to do. She moved to the Sansbury Care Center in 2001, where she continued her recycling ministry for some time.
Sr. Vincent was preceded in death by her parents and siblings and survived by several nieces and nephews.
A sharing of memories and visitation was held on Thursday, December 22, at the Sansbury Care Center Chapel. The funeral was on Friday, December 23, at Sansbury Care Center Chapel. Sr. Vincent was interred at the St. Catharine Motherhouse Cemetery among her Sisters and friends.
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Memorial gifts in Sr. Vincent de Paul Hutton’s memory may be sent to the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Office of Mission Advancement, 2320 Airport Dr. Columbus, OH 43219 or oppeace.org.