Sister Bridget Clare McKeever, SSL
1931 ~ 2026
Sr. Bridget Clare McKeever was born in Portglenone, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland to Mary and Thomas McKeever on February 26, 1931. She was the youngest child of sixteen children, four of whom died in infancy. She had six sisters and five brothers, and although she grew up in a large family, she tended to be alone with her parents due to the age difference of her siblings. In her own words, Bridget Clare said, “I learned to play alone and became quite imaginative.”Bridget Clare completed her secondary education at St. Louis Secondary School in Ballymena and entered the Sisters of St. Louis, Monaghan in 1948. After Profession in 1951, she was missioned to St. Louis School, Rathmines, Dublin to begin her teaching career. In 1952, Bridget Clare answered the call to go to California, where she began teaching the 4th grade in St. Bede School, La Cañada. In 1954, she was assigned to teach English and Religion in Mater Dei High School, Santa Ana, where her years of service had a great impact during the foundational decades of the school, helping with the musical productions and writing the lyrics of Mater Dei School’s Alma Mater. She began her master’s degree program in religion and personality at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh in 1967 to prepare for her ministry of formation of younger Sisters. In the years following the Vatican Council, she offered many renewal courses and retreats in the United States and other countries in which she shared her extensive knowledge and love of literature and how it influenced her spirituality. Many of us still have the notes we took during those courses.
Bridget Clare was a gifted teacher, counselor and writer whose influence spread far beyond her religious community.  She provided pastoral care and counseling in St. Margaret Mary Parish, Lomita from 1980-82, and in 1983 was awarded her PhD in pastoral care and counseling from Claremont School of Theology, Claremont. She served as assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling both in St. Meinrad, School of Theology in Indiana from 1983- 86 and Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles from 1986- 1990. In 1990, Bridget Clare returned to St. Meinrad, School of Theology as associate professor of pastoral care and counseling until 1996, when she became the Director of Spirituality Programs in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. 
From 2006 to 2022, Bridget Clare shared her gifts and expertise in pastoral care, spiritual direction and retreat direction in Louisville Convent, Woodland Hills, often accompanied by her favorite companion, Spunky, a cute, white Maltese. Her goal as a counselor and spiritual director was “to help others grow in their knowledge and love of God and to be an incarnated presence of God for them.” 
 Ill health eventually necessitated her move to Mary Health of the Sick Skilled Nursing Facility, Newbury Park where the Sisters, Servants of Mary and their nursing staff lovingly and compassionately cared for her.
Bridget Clare died on January 17, 2026, and will be missed by her religious community, the Sisters of St. Louis, her loving family, friends, and by all whose lives she touched. May she enjoy eternal peace with the God she loved and be reunited with her parents, and her sisters and brothers who predeceased her. 
The Sisters of St. Louis are deeply grateful to the staff of Mary Health of the Sick for their compassionate care of Bridget Clare who spent the last four years of her life in their nursing facility in Newbury Park, California. The vigil and Mass were celebrated at St. Bernardine of Siena Church, Woodland Hills on Wednesday, February 25. Burial will be in N. Ireland with her family.