Biography
Gwen Hennessey is a Franciscan sister and peace activist from Iowa. She and her older sister Dorothy were sentenced to six months in federal prison in 2001 for their School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning. Gwen was 68 at sentencing; Dorothy was 88.
Each year on the November anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador in 1989, peace activists gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, site of the U.S. Army School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), to commemorate the dead and to call for the school's closure. Hundreds have crossed the line onto the base over four decades of vigils; many have served federal sentences ranging from 30 days to a year for trespass.
Birth-date sources
Identity, vital dates and source reconciliation
The January 30, 2008 Congressional Record tribute and Catholic News Service obituary identify Gwen and Dorothy as Franciscan sisters, not Sisters of the Presentation. The obituary gives their sentencing ages as 68 and 88 respectively. The former shared biography incorrectly described both as in their seventies; that wording has been corrected. No custody endpoint or birth date has been inferred from age alone.
