S. Kevin Irwin OSB

S. Kevin Irwin died on Sunday, June 14, 2020. A private wake service will be held at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 and a private funeral service will be celebrated on Wednesday, June 17, at 11:00 AM, both in Bishop Marty Memorial Chapel in Yankton, South Dakota. Burial will be in the monastery cemetery. Because of COVID-19, a public memorial Mass will be celebrated at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of the Wintz & Ray Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Yankton. Patricia Ann was born September 23, 1929 in Redfield, South Dakota, to Bernard and Edna (Naughton) Irwin, the oldest of three daughters. She grew up on a farm south of Rockham, South Dakota and went to a country school, then to boarding school in Zell and to Mount Marty High School in Yankton, South Dakota. She and her sisters enjoyed dances on Saturday nights and other social activities, especially after the family moved to Rockham when she was in high school. Her interest in music grew by taking piano and violin lessons while boarding in Zell. Patricia entered Sacred Heart Monastery September 1947. She became a novice on June 23, 1948 and was given the name Kevin. She made temporary profession on June 24, 1949 and final profession on June 29, 1952. In May 1954, she graduated from Mount Marty College with a Bachelor of Music Education Degree and in 1956, she earned a Master’s Degree from the University of South Dakota in Music. S. Kevin taught in Dimock, Stephan and Yankton, South Dakota. She served as Dean of Students at Mount Marty, 1962-1968. From 1968-1972, she was at the Newman Center in Vermillion and took classes in counseling. She then ministered in Student Life at Mount Marty until 1978 and began her work with the Divorced, Separated and Widowed group in the Yankton area. She practiced counseling at Benedictine Family Services until it closed in 1992; following that she ministered fifteen years as Volunteer Coordinator & Pastoral Minister at Sacred Heart Parish in Yankton, retiring in 2007. She continued to volunteer with communion calls and visits as well as volunteering at the Yankton Area Banquet. She was also the Director of Novices from 1985 to 1986 and Director of Formation from 1989 to 1992. S. Kevin was an avid reader and kept up with local and world news. Sewing and baking were also hobbies, and she loved traveling to new places. She was an optimistic person with a good sense of humor, aging gracefully with a spirit of gratitude blessing her and those around her. S. Kevin is survived by her Benedictine community, her sisters and brothers-in-law, Sharon (Deane) Munro and Mary Dawn (Harlan) Vesely, and her nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents.