A Mass of Christian Burial for Precious Blood Sister Margaret Mary Imes, 92, was held at Salem Heights on July 7. Sister Margaret died July 3 at Maria Joseph Living Care Center in Dayton. She was a Sister of the Precious Blood for 72 years.

A native of Kansas City, Kan., she entered the Sisters of the Precious Blood in 1936 and received the name Sister Mary Innocent.

She taught primary grades in Dayton, Cleveland, Burkettsville and Columbus Grove, before receiving nursing registration at Good Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing in Dayton.

She served as a nurse at Lourdes Hall in Dayton and Kneipp Springs in Indiana. She returned to primary teaching while also serving as school nurse/infirmarian at San Luis Rey Academy in California and at Sacred Heart School in Phoenix, Ariz.
She spent nearly 25 years among Native Americans serving in public health nursing on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Ariz., and on the Tohono O’Odham Reservation in Sells, Ariz.

She retired to Salem Heights in Dayton in 1996. Failing health necessitated her move to Emma Hall at the Maria Joseph Center in 2006.

She is survived by one sister, Frances McKinney, of California. Interment was in Salem Heights Cemetery.

Sister Marie Ralph

Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Marie Michel Ralph died July 11 at the age of 96 in Mother Margaret Hall in Cincinnati.

She was born Regina Ann Ralph in Cleveland and entered religious life in 1932, serving 76 years as a Sister of Charity.

Sister Marie Michel earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the Athenaeum of Ohio, a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of Mount St. Joseph and a master’s degree in education from the University of Cincinnati. She ministered extensively in education, teaching at schools in the dioceses of Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, and Pueblo, Colo., including: Annunciation School, Cincinnati (1935-38); St. Brigid School in Xenia (1938-40); St. Lawrence, Cincinnati (1940-47 and 1950-51); Holy Angels, Sidney, Ohio (1960-61); Holy Name, Cincinnati (1961-62); and Seton High School, Cincinnati (1984-86).

In 1986, Sister Marie Michel retired to the motherhouse, where she greeted visitors and served in the gift shop.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated July 15 in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the motherhouse. Burial was in the Sisters of Charity cemetery.

Tony Snow

WASHINGTON — Anthony "Tony" Snow, former White House press secretary and a prominent journalist who worked both in print and broadcast, died July 12 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington after a long bout with colon cancer. He was 53.

A public funeral Mass was to be celebrated July 17 for Snow at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, with Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington as presiding bishop and Vincentian Father David M. O’Connell, president of the Catholic University of America, as celebrant and homilist.

CNS PHOTO/LARRY DOWNING, REUTERS

Tony Snow points during his daily briefing to the press at the White House in Washington in 2007. Snow, 53, who was a convert to Catholicism, died July 12 after a battle with colon cancer.

As Snow battled cancer, his faith deepened, something that was reflected in the commencement speech he gave at the Catholic University of America in Washington in May 2007. He titled his speech "Reason, Faith, Vocation."

"Faith is as natural as the air we breathe. Religion is not an opiate, just the opposite," he said. "It is the introduction to the ultimate extreme sport. There is nothing that you can imagine that God cannot trump."

Snow, who was born in Kentucky and raised in Cincinnati from an early age, had been diagnosed and treated for cancer before becoming White House press secretary in May 2006. Shortly before his Catholic University address, Snow had announced the return of his cancer, and in his remarks to the graduates, he said he had received numerous messages with promises of prayer for him.

"Never underestimate the power of other people’s love and prayer. They have incredible power. It’s as if I’ve been carried on the shoulders of an entire army," Snow said.

In a statement released July 14 by Catholic University, Vincentian Father David M. O’Connell, university president, recalled that Snow "was so generous with his time, offering to pose with any of the graduates who approached him; Tony was eager to tour the campus and basilica after the ceremony and left CUA that afternoon to spend time with his family. ‘They are my priority,’ he told me."

"May he live in the joy and peace of the promised eternity he spoke of at commencement," Father O’Connell said.

Eternity is something Snow spoke of at one point in his commencement address. "No matter how lousy things may seem, you’ve got the breath of life. And while God doesn’t promise tomorrow, he does promise eternity," he said.

Snow worked for numerous newspapers, holding a variety of editorial positions, from 1979 until 1991. Snow served as editorial page editor for two dailies, the Detroit News and later the Washington Times. In 1991 he left newspapers to become deputy assistant to the president for communications and director of speechwriting for President George H.W. Bush. After leaving the White House, Snow continued to write editorials for the Detroit News and USA Today while also working in television.

After working with the first President Bush, Snow went on to work briefly with ABC News before settling in with the Fox News Channel for many years. Snow anchored the "Fox News Sunday" show beginning in 1996.

In 2003 Snow launched a Sunday morning show called "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" as well as "Tony Snow Live" for Fox News Radio, where he continued to work until returning to the White House to serve as press secretary for the current President Bush.

Snow attended Davidson College in North Carolina, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1977.

He is survived by his wife, Jill, whom he married in 1987, and their three children, son Robbie and daughters Kendall and Kristi.