Remembering Sister Mary Yvette Gillen, RSM

With gratitude and sorrow, Our Lady of Fatima Parish gives thanks for the life and ministry of Sister Mary Yvette Gillen, RSM (February 23, 1942 – November 2, 2025).

Before coming to Alcoa, Sister Yvette served St. Therese Church in Clinton for nearly four decades, guiding the community through adult and youth formation, RCIA, liturgy coordination, and pastoral care.

Invited by her close friend Fr. Bill McKenzie & Msgr. Bill Gahagan, she then served Our Lady of Fatima (2013–2020) as Spiritual Director, Pastoral Associate, and Director of Religious Education—sharing Christ’s mercy through her prayer, presence, and steadfast love, and continuing the Sisters of Mercy legacy in Alcoa. During her time at OLOF, Sr. Yvette offering compassion, guidance, and friendship to all who knew her.

We are deeply grateful for the years Sister Mary walked with our community and for the enduring example of faith and love she leaves behind. May she rest now in the peace of Christ, whom she served so beautifully.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, November 12, 2025, at the Sisters of Mercy Convent, 2629 Pennington Bend Rd., Nashville—Welcoming Service at 11:00 a.m., Celebration of Life Liturgy at 1:00 p.m.—with burial at Calvary Cemetery to follow (1001 Lebanon Pike, Nashville).

A remembrance service at Our Lady of Fatima will be announced at a later time.

Official Obituary (source: Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home)

Read the funeral home obituary here for complete details and service times.

Sister Mary Yvette Gillen (Janice Sue Gillen) was born in Findley, OH., to Yvo and Grace Wise Gillen on February 23, 1942. She was preceded in death by her parents, and siblings Norman, LaDonna Koening (Homer), and Ruth Ann Phillips (Harry). Sister Yvette is survived by her sister Beverly Nye (Richard), and her sister-in-law Nancy Gillen, many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews and her Mercy community.

Sister Yvette entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1961 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She taught for twenty years in Ohio and Tennessee. In 1976, she ministered as a Chaplain and Assistant Director of Pastoral Care, at St. Mary’s Medical Center, in Knoxville, Tennessee for ten years. She found her work as Chaplain on the Oncology floor most rewarding, helping the dying and their families. The patients appreciated her kindness and care.

Her next assignment was serving as Pastoral Associate in Clinton, Alcoa, and Norris, Tennessee, which she did for nineteen years. She visited homes, hospitals, nursing homes, gave sacramental instructions, and coordinated the RCIA Program.

Sister Yvette became known for her roller skating, raising $45,000 in five years for the Kidney Foundation and The Columbus Home. She was proud of her nickname “The Skating Nun.”

In 2020, Sister retired to Mercy Convent in Nashville, Tennessee. Sister Yvette said, “When I came to Tennessee, I fell in love with Tennessee. Most of my ministry was in East Tennessee. I loved the people I ministered to, the Sisters and the mountains.”

Funeral services: Wednesday, November 12, 2025—Welcoming Service 11:00 a.m., Celebration of Life Liturgy 1:00 p.m., Sisters of Mercy Convent, 2629 Pennington Bend Rd., Nashville; burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery.