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Angels Get New 'Duty'

Angels Get New 'Duty' image
Parent Issue
Day
24
Month
April
Year
1964
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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EASY DOES IT: Final adjustments are made on a new base at St. Thomas Cemetery to receive one of two angels that stood alongside the main altar at St. Thomas Catholic Church since 1901. Gingerly working on the massive, six-foot statue here are, from the left, Frederick L. Arnet II, Earl Vashon and Henry Porter.

Angels Get New 'Duty'
Leave St. Thomas Church to 'Guard' Cemetery
Children and former children who are accustomed to being looked down upon by two life-size white marble angels at St. Thomas Catholic Church will have to go to St. Thomas Cemetery, 300 Sunset, from now on to see the statues.
The two angels, which have stood alongside the main altar at St. Thomas since the church was built in 1901, were removed to the cemetery as a part of a major remodeling and refurbishing of the interior of the church. They now will stand guard at the cemetery gates.
It was estimated that the six-foot statues have flanked the altar at St. Thomas during some 80,000 masses.
The Rev. Edward D. Kelly asked Mrs. Felix Donnelly of the Parish to donate the angels when St. Thomas was under construction. A distant cousin, Miss Hazel Donnelly, recalls that the earlier Mrs. Donnelly balked at having "$75 apiece just standing there," but agreed to purchase the statuary from Arnet's Cemetery Monument Co.
Frederick L. Arnet, II, now co-owner of the monument firm, estimates that the hand-carved marble angels, imported from Italy, would cost from $700 to $800 apiece to duplicate today.
Arnet arranged for new bases for the statues in St. Thomas Cemetery.