Florence Rigali

brief biography

This Florence was the family member that received the announcement that her brother 2nd Lieutenant John Louis Rigali went missing in action during World War II.

She was a nun in the order of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and in Vatican City (1945-1968). She was a missionary for some of that time. She worked as a schoolteacher for much of her nunhood. She was known as Sister Mary David.

She was said to have left nunhood after finding scandalous information about the Roman Catholic Church, but this has not been confirmed. It seems more likely that she followed Dr. Anita Marie Caspary into the non-canonical Immaculate Heart Community and then later left its ranks.

After leaving nunhood, she worked as a schoolteacher and principal in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

She suffered from ALS from circa 2006 until her death. She was bedridden and unable to speak in her final months.

family

did not marry

died without issue

notes

To find her grave at San Fernando Mission Cemetery:

• enter through the cemetery's western entrance
• go just beyond the first "plaza"
• her grave is near the road on the right side

links

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29137664/florence-anne-rigali
• https://billiongraves.com/grave/Florence-Rigali/8942834
• https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V2R9-K69
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tamacleod/WC06/WC...
• http://www.cagenweb.com/ventura/b1927.html (search for "Florence Anne Rigali")
• http://losangeles.blockshopper.com/property/4165019002/1809_lynngro...