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Showing posts with label parish history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parish history. Show all posts

Saturday, October 17, 2026

Remembering a Wonderful Pastor: Fr. John Mary Powers, the "Guardian Angel of Cleveland Heights"

Being the daughter of a naval officer, I spent my growing up years on the move.  Since we 
relocated every three or four years, I attended three elementary schools. I remember with particular fondness St. Ann's school in Cleveland Heights, OH. The pastor was Fr. John Mary Powers. Father was given the project of starting a new parish in 1915. The area was undeveloped then, and he influenced the local government to  create a neighborhood at the same time and avoid putting commercial buildings adjacent to the parish grounds.

I went to St. Ann's from Kindergarten through third grade. Every day, my siblings and I walked the mile to school from our home on Guilford Rd. to the parish school on Coventry. The parish church was just finished in the early fifties, so I was among the first generation going to Mass in the Church instead of the school. I made my First Communion at St. Ann's.