Sr. Therese Tackett, formerly Sr. Mary Kenneth, age 90 of the Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg, died on September 12, 2022 at the convent. Born on October 22, 1931 in Bluefield, West Virginia, she was the seventh of eight children born to Nannie (Nee: Campbell) and Shady Tackett. The family lived on a three-acre farm where they all helped with chores. The farm not only provided produce for their family, but also for the Sisters at Sacred Heart School and any needy family in the Bluefield area.
She attended Sacred Heart School and later a high school in Wisconsin as she was interested in entering a Dominican order there, but transferred back to West Virginia her sophomore year to attend Beaver High School before becoming an aspirant at the Immaculate Conception Academy in Oldenburg where she entered the community on September 8, 1948. She chose to follow her two cousins, Sisters Therese Ann Campbell and Suzanne Campbell in entering the convent. Education was important to Therese as she earned a BA in education at Marian University, an MA in education at Ball State University, and finally a MA in Counselling at the University of Dayton.
For 28 years she taught at elementary schools in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri serving both as teacher and principal. Nineteen of those years were spent in working with the poor, particularly among the African-American students at St. Joseph’s School in Cincinnati where she returned to work three separate times.
In 1979 she participated at an internship in high school retreat work at a Capuchin retreat center in Marathon, Wisconsin. The following year she returned to Oldenburg to serve as guidance counselor at the Academy. While there she helped to form a drug and alcohol awareness group jointly with Batesville High School and St. Louis School in Batesville. The group was comprised of high school students, parents and professional consultants to educate young students about the effects of drugs and alcohol.
In the years that followed, Therese worked in various capacities including Director of Youth Ministry for the Evansville Indiana Diocese; Director of Life Services for the Oldenburg Sisters; Director of Wallins Fellowship Center and Community Access Program in Harlan County, Kentucky; GED Instructor for Rockcastle County Detention Center in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky and the Christian Appalachian Project in Lancaster, Kentucky. In 2010 she returned to Oldenburg to volunteer in the Batesville area until her retirement in 2011.
She is survived by her sister Mary Katheryn Freshour of Knoxville, Tennessee along with numerous nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, she is also preceded in death by sisters Dorothy Tackett, Joan Riley and brothers James, Robert, Donald and Joseph Tackett.
Visitation will be Wednesday, September 21st from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. at the convent chapel. Funeral services follow at 3:00 p.m. with Rev. Kenneth Overberg SJ officiating and burial will be in the convent cemetery. For those attending masks are mandatory. If unable to attend, services will be live-streamed at https://youtu.be/q3qyqPJzqM4. Memorials may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis, P.O. Box 100, Oldenburg, Indiana, 47036 (www.OldenburgFranciscans.org). For online condolences go to www.weigelfh.com.