Sister Donna Franklin

Sister Donna Franklin, born Donna Marie Franklin on May 15, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, passed away on March 11, 2026. The oldest of three children of Louis Franklin, Jr. and Catherine Veronica (Brady) Franklin, she graduated from Archbishop Wood High School for Girls in Warminster, Pennsylvania in 1968. After working with a religious community in Kentucky, she entered the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul on September 12, 1974. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Emmanuel College in Boston in 1981, a Master of Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work in New York in 1986, and a Certificate in Chemical Dependency Counseling from Villanova University in 1992.

Sister Donna devoted her life to social work and service within the Daughters of Charity. Her ministries included roles at Nazareth Child Care Center in Jamaica Plain, New York; St. John of God Assisted Living in Brighton, Massachusetts; St. Catherine’s Center for Children in Albany, New York; Nazareth Home in Boston; Astor Home in the Bronx; Immaculate Conception Parish and Ghebre Michael Inn in Philadelphia; and as Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York from 1995 until 2018. In her final years at St. Louise House in Albany, she embraced a ministry of prayer while quietly performing countless acts of kindness for her fellow Sisters.

She is survived by her sister, Ann Cecilia Smith (Timothy Smith); her brother, Louis Joseph Franklin (Carol Landes); three nieces, Jessica Franklin Clark, Molly Smith, and Leah Smith; one nephew, Michael Franklin; two great-nephews, Carter Clark and Frankie Clark; one great-niece, Collette Clark; and many Brady and Franklin cousins.