Sr. Connie devoted seven decades to serving the vulnerable as a social worker, administrator, and author of her congregation’s history. A founding member of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace, she led children’s homes, directed the Religious Leaders Program at Notre Dame, and taught English to immigrants well into her 90s.
Mary Constance (always called Connie) was the second daughter born to Julia (McTiernan) and John Hubert Gaynor. She was born in Brooklyn on May 10, 1927. Among her siblings were an older sister, Joan, and two younger brothers, Hugh (called Bud), born in 1928, and Mark, born in 1930, all now deceased.
Hers was a close-knit family that resided for the most part in Brooklyn, spending summers in Monroe. Because Joan had a heart condition, it was recommended that she be “in the country,” so Joan and Connie began attending boarding school in 1935 at Ladycliff Academy in Highland Falls, run by the Franciscan Sisters. At the same time, their mother returned to work as a secretary in a law firm on Wall Street.
Connie and her sister attended Ladycliff for a total of 13 years, graduating together from grammar school in 1940, high school in 1944, and college in 1948. As she got older, Connie worked each summer as a receptionist/switchboard operator and later as a camp counselor. In high school and college, she was active in sports and in dramatics. Connie felt called to religious life while in college but put it off at her family’s request to complete her college education. After graduating, she had other plans and began doing social work at the Angel Guardian Home in Brooklyn, run by the Sisters of Mercy. After two years, at the age of 23, she decided to enter the novitiate of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Peekskill in September 1950.
After first profession in 1952, the community planned to have Sister Joan (Connie) study for a master’s degree in social work. She spent one year on the staff of St. Joseph’s Home as a child care worker and then transferred to the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Home in the Bronx. Sr. Connie attended the Fordham University School of Social Work in Manhattan and worked part-time as a child care worker. She completed the degree requirements in 1955 and was then assigned to the social work staff of St. Joseph’s Home.
During her first year, the director of social work died and Sr. Connie was assigned to that role. She supervised five case workers as well as the newly formed psychiatric clinic. In 1961, she was again assigned to Lt. Kennedy Home in the Bronx.
Shortly thereafter, in 1962, she was moved back to St. Joseph’s Home in Peekskill and served there as director for five years. In 1967, she served as executive director of Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Home in the Bronx. This role continued until 1976.
In the summer of 1968, Sr. Connie was elected by province membership to assist with preparation of the content for a Special General Chapter mandated for all religious communities after Vatican Council II. In 1969, she returned to Rome as one of the delegates to that chapter.
In 1976, Sr. Connie was approved for a sabbatical year spent in the Religious Leaders Program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. At the completion of the program, she was asked to take a position with a Belgian research organization named “Prospective International” to open an office for them in the U.S. The purpose was to study the future needs of the Church in Third World countries and engage the support of the bishops in First World countries.
The following year, she was asked to return to the University of Notre Dame to direct the Religious Leaders Program. She served in that position for four years before returning to New York in 1982.
Sr. Connie then served the congregation as vocation director until 1987. Concurrently, she ministered in social work at Martin de Porres Village in Paterson, N.J., and for five years as director of social work for the Dominican Sisters Family Health Services in the Bronx.
She was one of the founding members of the newly established diocesan congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of Peace, in 1986. At the first General Chapter in 1987, she was elected as a member of the General Council for a four-year term.
In 1988, Sr. Connie ministered as the director of social services at the Incarnation Children Center in New York City, a newly opened residence for children with AIDS. In 1993, she went to Cabanas in Guatemala to minister in the mission opened there by Sr. Irene Freely. After three years, both returned to the U.S. due to lack of funding.
From 1997 to 2002, Sr. Connie was the development director of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace. She retired from active ministry at age 75 and began to write a history of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace. The book, titled “Peacemaking-Our Journey-A History of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace,” was completed and published in 2006.
During her retirement, Sr. Connie served as secretary for the Archdiocesan Council of Women Religious for one year. She then returned to her ministry as a social worker, supervising case workers at St. Rita’s Center for Refugees and Immigrants in the Bronx. In addition, she volunteered at Schervier Nursing Home, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, and the Yonkers Library in the English as a second language program.
In 2008, Sr. Connie started a new career as part-time archivist for the Franciscan Sisters of Peace and continued in that ministry for several years. It is clear that Sr. Connie spent her early years ministering to the most vulnerable among us. Even when she retired from active ministry, she continued her involvement in a variety of ways.
In 2015, she moved to Marian Woods, a collaborative adult home for women religious. There she shared community with many other sisters within the Franciscan community as well as many others.
When she needed more care, she moved to St. Cabrini Nursing Home in 2024. Even there, she volunteered to teach English as a second language to those who emigrated to the U.S. seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Sr. Connie reminds us of what it means to be a true missionary even in our “elder” years. It was just recently that Sr. Connie was cared for by Hospice of Westchester. She entered eternal life peacefully on Oct. 2, 2026, no doubt hearing her Lord say, “Come to me now and I will give you rest!”
She is survived by her nieces, Missy Gaynor Shearer, Maureen Gaynor Wagener, Julia Gaynor, Jenny McClain, and Kelly Joyce; her nephews, Christopher Mixson, Timothy Mixson, Charles Mixson, and Mark Gaynor Jr.; several grandnieces and grandnephews; and her Franciscan Sisters of Peace community.
Funeral services will be held at Marian Woods Chapel on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, to celebrate her life, beginning at 9 a.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m.
Interment will take place at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Yonkers following the Mass.
