Sister Joan McCarthy, a beloved member of the Ursuline Community formerly known as Mother Mary John, entered eternal life peacefully at Andrus on Hudson on October 29, 2025. She entered the Ursulines in 1947, having graduated from the College of New Rochelle. 

Sister Joan taught at Blessed Sacrament School, New Rochelle, St. Jerome’s School, and St. Philip Neri School in the Bronx, and at The Ursuline School, New Rochelle. Her later active years included parish ministry at St. John’s, Beacon, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Pelham Manor, St. Joseph’s in Malone, and 17 years of service to the city of New Rochelle at the Hugh A. Doyle Senior Center. She had been in administration for the Ursulines as superior, provincial councilor, and novice director.

Sister Joan was born in Brooklyn in 1925, the third child of Mary McKenna McCarthy and Joseph Francis McCarthy. She is predeceased by her brothers Edmund, John, and Joseph, and her sister Mary Rogers, and is survived by her sister, Margaret Mary Ehler, and several nieces and nephews.

Services will be at the Ursuline Province Center, 1338 North Avenue, New Rochelle. Viewing on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 9:15 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial 10:30 a.m. Burial following at Gate of Heaven Cemetery.

The funeral liturgy will be live-streamed. Donations in memory of Sister Joan may be made to the Ursuline Provincialate Development Office, 1338 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10804.