After her retirement, Sister Margaret Ann was active in attending events at the Fine Arts Center at Viterbo University and community events at St. Rose Convent whenever possible. The seeds of being a Sister and a teacher were planted in those early years. She attended Sacred Heart Grade School there, taught by the FSPA. She specifically enjoyed cat sitting while family and friends would go on vacation. Sister Judith, a sister for 69 years, died February 14, 2018 at Mary, Queen and Mother Center in St. Louis. Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and Associates | Allegany NY Sister Gertrude made first profession of vows on August 12, 1948 and final vows on August 9, 1954. Donnas grade school years were spent in six different schools, while living in six different homes. Sister Michon was born to John W. and Vera (Duffy) Desmond on August 28, 1933, in Winona, Minnesota, the eldest of six children. In 2003 Sister Rosile retired and volunteered at Clare Center in Spokane. Community members, family and friends remember Sister Agnes as having a heart of gold for the sisters she served as a homemaker and for the children whose lives she touched in Mississippi and Texas. Upon completion of a bachelors degree in elementary education from Viterbo College (University), Sister Lois entered the teaching profession. Sisters. Her adoration was always the first priority in her day while at St. Rose Convent. Her creativity was expressed there in numerous ways, especially at times of the many holidays and feast days celebrated there as she decked the halls with flowers gleaned from the garden. After a sabbatical, she studied to become a massage therapist, a profession she practiced for six years at the Idyllwild Help Center in Idyllwild, California. She made her first profession of vows on August 12, 1954. Joanne Patricia Lancaster was born on February 17, 1928 in Spokane to Emmett and Effie (Turpin) Lancaster. Saint of the Day. She was an elementary school teacher for the majority of her active religious life, teaching grades one through four. She was so well-known at Glacier Park for her pies that an Associated Press journalist wrote about her in an article that appeared across the country. She was received into the novitiate in 1959 and given the name, Sister Mary Leo (later going back to her baptismal name). She was in the sixty-eighth year of her religious profession. She wanted to do things differently! In 1989, with the close of FSPA regions, Sister Evelyn was called to serve as assistant treasurer for the FSPA congregation in La Crosse. Sister Betty Shakal, FSPA, 87, died May 3, 2021 at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse, Wisconsin. She served as a program assistant at Cabrini House in Minneapolis for 14 years. While with FSPA, Sister Sandra ministered to the elderly in St. Paul for a couple years before moving to La Crosse, where she became the Justice and Peace Director for the FSPA. From 2001 to 2009, while traveling back and forth to Cameroon, Sister Anita lived in the formation house of the congregation where, as she put it, she moved from a ministry of doing to the ministry of being. In 2009, she was invited to continue the ministry of being at Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin. As boarders, Sister Margaret and Helen got home one weekend a month. She and eight of her former students from Our Lady of the Lake in Ashland participated in daily prayer with each other even during her retirement at Villa St. Joseph. I was into trouble almost constantly for skipping school, breaking rules and getting into things that were none of my business. It was not until her senior year that she gave her future a serious thought. Later, after finishing her third year of high school, she asked again. Franciscan Sisters have served at St. Benedict's for 80 years. Sister Lois Lobdell, FSPA, 97, died Thursday, August 27, 2020, of natural causes at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse. Obituaries Franciscan Sister Anna Ahern dies at 91 Share this story Sister Anna Louise Aherne, O.S.F. Mike Lang, Dialog Reporter - 16 September 2020, 12:29 0 READING, Pa. Sister Laetitia Okoniewski, 101, a member of the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Third Order Regular of St. Francis, died Sept. 15 at. She created connections among her family, friends and community. In 2017, Sister Gertrude moved to Villa St. Joseph Community members, family and friends will remember Sister Gertrude as quiet, cheerful, and always having a smile and kind word for others. In the summer of 1954 she visited St. Rose Convent on a Sunday, returned home, packed and again returned to St. Rose as an aspirant the following Monday. Just last week, she shared with one of the sisters that she said a prayer every night during the pandemic before she went to bed and she would sing a lullaby to the earth and to all of its inhabitants that they would sleep well and safe. During this time, the call to religious life was reawakened in her. She attributed her good health to the daily walks/runs to the hermitages located on the Villa property. She then began working as a home healthcare aid for Olmsted County Public Health Department. After eighth grade, Sister Margaret remained home helping her mother who was ill at the time. She made her home at Villa St. Joseph in 2013. She received by Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help | Jan 18, 2018 | Franciscan Sisters News, Obituaries. Sister Margaret Ann ministered as an elementary school teacher for 47 years throughout Wisconsin (Eau Galle, Mondovi, Odanah, Ashland, Eau Claire, Edgar, Athens, Superior and Ashland), as well as Blackfoot, Idaho and Milford, Iowa. Sister Helen taught one year at St. Marys School, Marathon, Wisconsinbefore devoting the rest of her life to the healthcare profession. Her father served as Spokane City Treasurer until his retirement. From 2010 to 2017, she also served as a volunteer organist at Regina Hospital in Hastings, Minnesota. She was in the sixty-eighth year of her religious profession. For almost 40 years, Sister Bernadette played background music once a month for televised Masses in the Madison Diocese as part of their Apostolate to the Handicapped. She also served from 1962 to 1977 as assistant housekeeper at Viterbo College (University). For six years she was the chapel tour guide coordinator at the convent. At the completion of her term she moved to Sun City, Arizona, where she served as parish administrator of St. John Vianney Parish. Our dear, sweet Sister Erlinda Gurule went home to the Lord on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Sister Rita attended her freshman year at Sacred Heart School, then transferred to Early Consolidated School for the rest of her high school years. A second sister, Kathy, was born following the familys return to the States. Jeanette Mary Margaret Kassmeyer was born in Fort Madison, Iowa, to Frank and Leona (Krittenbrink) Kassmeyer on March 11, 1936, the oldest of eight children. She taught for 33 years in elementary schools in Iowa, Washington, Oregon and Wisconsin. Next, Sister Rita Marie taught at Holy Family School in Ashland, Wisconsin (1962-1966), then St. Henry School in Eau Galle, Wisconsin (1966-1969). Friars Minor. She was in the 76th year of her religious profession. In 1995, Sister Pat became Director of Religious Education (DRE) at St. Joseph Parish (Kendall) and continued to serve as DRE and parish minister in Wisconsin at St. John the Baptist Parish (Wilton) and St. Patrick Parish (Elroy) until retiring five years later. Florence Catherine was born on September 26, 1923, to Frank and Dorothy (Tritz) Goetz in Bellevue, Iowa. She managed to turn every business trip into an adventure. Her final days of retirement were at Villa St. Joseph. She then earned a bachelors degree in elementary education from Viterbo College in La Crosse. When Helen came to a decision, Sister Rosewyn spoke with Mother Engelberta and convinced her to allow Helen to enter St. Rose Convent in January instead of waiting until August. She attended a country school until grade six, when her parents, wanting to draw on the value of a Catholic education, enrolled her at St. Anns School in Wabasso, Minnesota. Remembering Sr. Mary Elizabeth Glueckstein Wheaton Franciscans October 3, 2022 Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1929, she entered the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in 1945 and professed perpetual vows in 1951. In 1993, Sister Pat returned to Tulsa as pastoral minister at St. Marys Parish until returning to St. Rose Convent in 1996, where she served in pastoral care to sisters retired there. Of Resurrection Sisters (ASR) Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm (O.CARM) Congregation of Notre Dame (CND) Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth (CSFN) Congregation of St. John the Baptist (CSJB) Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul (DC) Sister Joan Hageman, FSPA, 82, died on February 20, 2022 at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse, Wisconsin. She had a deep and compassionate heart for the poor and had the most humble and human way of finding the poor in spirit and being one with them. From 1981 to 1984 she worked as a baker in West Glacier, Montana, then three years at a university in Lockport, Illinois. For the next 21 years, from 1981 to 2002, Sister Margaret again used her teaching skills as a religious education teacher, tutor and parish visitor at St. Marys in Hurley, Wisconsin. Her brothers and sisters teased her that she would miss gardening, playing baseball and driving a car, but the call persisted. Our dear Sister Loraine went to her rest in the arms of our loving God on August 19. Its great to be Irish, she would proudly proclaim. Your gifts connect you to our ongoing ministries and honor Sisters who are your former teachers, friends or family . In December of that year, she was brutally attacked and burned in an assault that occurred while she was at home in the convent. She later went back to her baptismal name. Yermo High School in El Paso. Sister Bernadette Milada Prochaska was born on June 15, 1932 in Montfort (Castle Rock), Wisconsin to Frank and Victoria (Roh) Prochaska, where she grew up with her nine brothers and sisters. The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis is an evangelical community of Franciscan women called to observe with loving and generous hearts the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to The Rule and Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. She made her first profession of vows on August 12, 1948. After visiting numerous religious communities, talking with many sisters, and somehow being nudged by St. Francis of Assisi, Jean entered St. Rose Convent in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Subsequently, she left the classroom and served as dental assistant for 11 years in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her first profession of vows took place on August 12, 1952. She then attended Marycliff High School in Spokane. Sister Jean has been selected to be honored with the Viterbo University Pope St. John XXIII Award, the highest non-academic award bestowed by the university, in May 2020.