BUCKHANNON One of the founders of the Pallottine Foundation of Buchhannon has announced her retirement. Janell Ray, the founding executive director of t
BUCKHANNON – More than 100 years ago, four Pallottine Missionary Sisters departed Germany on a journey to America. After narrowly avoiding tragedy – they initially booked passage on the Titanic before delaying their trip – the four women eventually found a home in the small Appalachian town of Buckhannon, West Virginia, where they purchased a private residence and converted it into a small, eight-bed hospital.
Thus were the humble beginnings of St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1921.
A century later, the legacy of those founding Sisters endures, with Sister Francesca Lowis determined to carry on the Pallottine Missionary Sisters’ mission of providing quality healthcare in under-served, north-central West Virginia.