Jacqueline Marie Dougherty

One of the great ironies of Jackie's life was that she never fully saw herself as others saw her. In her last month, she told her husband she felt like a failure. He dissented. A lifetime of family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors knew something different. Whatever Jackie committed herself to was enriched by her intelligence, her principles, and her unassuming charm. She was born in St. Louis on October 23, 1937 to Tony and Frances Centuzi, both of Sicilian heritage. She entered Saint Louis University in the fall of 1955, where she was chosen for the Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. There, with guidance from three Jesuits (Rev B.R. Fulkerson, Rev. Maurice McNamee, Rev. Walter Ong) her intellectual and spiritual life blossomed. She came to see the world as God’s coherent creation, illuminated by the word and presence of Christ. Also enrolled in that Program were several of her lifelong friends, among them her future husband of 64 years, James Dougherty. After graduating in 1959, she taught for a year at St. Alphonsus School, and then moved to Philadelphia, where she worked as the manager of a women’s dorm while earning an M.A. in English from Temple University in 1962. Later that year she married James, and with him moved to Calgary, Canada, where she taught for two years at Mount Royal College. Following the birth of their first child, Brian, they moved to South Bend in 1966. Inspired by her college experience in the Women’s Sodality and more by the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, she became engaged in the life of Holy Cross Parish and its role on the west side of South Bend. She taught briefly in the parish school and served on many committees concerned with the liturgical, intellectual and outreach ministries of the parish. Her son Michael joined the family in 1967. Both boys attended Holy Cross School. In 1973, at the request of Father Tom Zurcher, she and James undertook to rehab an abandoned house, in the parish’s west end, that had been acquired by Renew, a citywide organization dedicated to providing housing for low-income families. During this job she became pregnant with a daughter; Kate. Once Kate was in school, Jackie was invited to become Assistant Archivist for the archives of the Congregation of Holy Cross at Notre Dame. With her intelligence and talent for organization, she mastered archival skills and soon became indispensable, serving under a sequence of Holy Cross priests. She would warn those who were allowed to borrowed material from the Archives, ”Bring it back in a week. I’m Sicilian and I know where you live.” She was not just making a joke. Father Fulkerson had encouraged young women to know themselves and to be strong in that knowledge. No one could take her generosity for granted. In her personality there was a strand of steel: she was not to be messed around with. (As her family well knew!) For many years she served on the parish’s RCIA, the program that introduces new converts to the Catholic faith. As soon as women were welcomed to the lectern, she became a lector, reading Holy Scripture at Masses. Together with James she introduced a Minority Scholarship program to ensure that the parish school was available to its neighborhood. She was one of the Holy Cross women who served food at the Homeless Center. When the parish set up a committee to help refugees, she was assigned to a family of from Iraq, who became and remain her good friends, especially the mother Suhad. Her interest in art and culture, as fostered by Father McNamee’s Honors Program, led her to the Snite Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. She worked as a docent. giving themed tours of the collection to groups of adults and classes of visiting school children. She had a gift for drawing out responses from those whom she guided through the museum. Jackie was a loving mother and a firm one. Her husband relied on her not only to enforce household discipline but also to speak for both of them when their children met the crises of adolescence and young adulthood. “Mom’s mad at me,” they would tell him, but they all knew she was right; and they grew up loving and respecting her. In later years, Jackie and James moved to Bloomington to be closer to family, where she helped care for her grandson, Abe. She read to children at his preschool and volunteered with his school's garden club. She also found a new way to contribute to her community through the Bloomington Drama Club. Even in retirement, she continued doing what she had always done: responding generously to needs, making the life around her better. Jackie was drawn not to seeking recognition but to faithful stewardship. Whether in her parish, her city neighborhood, her family, or her workplace, she noticed what needed doing and responded. Her faith was something to be lived, not merely professed. She acted on principle, giving loving attention to people, institutions, and the ordinary events of daily life. She is survived by her husband James, her children Brian, Michael, and Kate, her grandchildren Anthony, Jack, Madeline and Abraham, her great-grandchild Alexandria, and by her sister Jeannine. Instead of flowers, contributions may be made to Catholic Relief Services, which serves poor and displaced people across the globe; or Exodus Relief Fund, which serves immigrants in central Indiana. www.crs.org www.exodusrefugee.org

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Jacqueline Marie Dougherty

October 23, 1937 - July 17, 2026