Kathleen Mary Egan

Kathleen Mary Egan religious name Mary Madeleine Thérèse (1890–1977) was an Australian Dominican Mother Superior and educationist.

Life

Egan was born in 1890 in The Rock near Wagga Wagga. She was educated by the Dominican nuns at Maitland and by 1912 she took her vows and the name Mary Madeleine Thérèse.

By 1924 she was a Mother Superior at the Dominican Roman Catholic Convent in Tamworth and in 1926 in Mayfield. In 1929 she returned to Tamworth and in 1931 she was asked to lead the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Waratah

In 1938 she decided that the school should improve its use of sound amplifiers, speech and lip-reading to mitigate their charges lack of hearing. She invited an expert from Canada, Father L Page, to explain the latest ideas to the school's staff. These techniques were known as "oral" and there was some debate about their advantages over sign language. She left the school in 1941. Egan left the school after nine years, during her time the high standard of the children's speech impressed government inspectors.

Egan retired to the Rosary Convent, Waratah and died in 1977.