Little Sister Alice Ann Sullivan

Alice was born in 1938, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her family lived next to a lake, somewhat isolated from the closest town. Her love for fishing dates from these early years. She remained close to her family and was a great fan of her home state football team, the Green Bay Packers.

She came to Alaska as a Jesuit volunteer, right after college, and taught at St Mary’s Mission school. Her love for Native people began there. It was also through some of the young women of St Mary’s that she heard about our community, the Little Sisters of Jesus.

She joined the Community in 1963 in Washington DC. In 1965, she was sent for two years to Canada to live among the Cree Indians in the Bay James area. She arrived in Fairbanks shortly before the flood of 1967. After a winter on Little Diomede Island, she went to Europe for theology and Bible studies. She made her final vows in 1971 and went back to the Bay James area for another two years. She always spoke of that time of her life with a lot of fondness.

From 1973, she lived in Alaska, in Nome and Anchorage.

In Nome, she spent a lot of time visiting the King Island elders. Her interest in history and the life of the Indigenous people led to research and create the genealogy of each family.

In her desire to share the everyday life of our friends from King Island, she wanted to join them at their summer camp, at Wooley Lagoon, where she spent many happy weeks.

Her love for the people led her to work in drug and alcohol abuse treatment centers, to study to become a counsellor and develop a culturally appropriate method of treatment.

A lover of nature, she spent many days exploring the tundra, picking berries and mostly bird watching. She knew each family of ravens in the Nome area. In Anchorage, she grew a beautiful flower garden.

In Nome, when we didn’t have a parish priest, she helped for the celebrations and gave very meaningful reflections, nourished by her prayer and her reading on theology.

Her love for the Community and her appreciation of the dedication of the Sisters who first came to Alaska led her to read their diaries and to put in writing the History of our Community in Alaska. 

Whenever, she had a chance to travel and meet other Sisters of our Community, they all were touched by her enthusiasm for life, for Alaska and her joy in meeting them.

She was avid reader, with a fondness for American history and loved to share her discoveries.

In Fall 2018, she went to live at the Pioneer Home, joining 3 other Sisters. She would say how lucky she was to live there and how thankful she was for the care and concern she received.

Little Sister Alice enjoyed life, food, laughter and fun. She had an upbeat spirit and a childlike ability to marvel and appreciate the little joys of life. She made life-long friendships and retained her love for God, for the Sisters of her Community and the peoples among whom she lived.