A Memorial Mass for Sister Ann Albrecht, CSJ, was celebrated May 19 at Nazareth Living Center in south St. Louis County. Sister Ann died May 9 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 99 years old.
Sister Ann was born on July 25, 1926, in St. Louis to parents Walter Thomas and Anna A. (Au) Albrecht. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet on Sept. 15, 1945, was received as Sister Thomas Borgia in 1946 and made her final profession on Aug. 15, 1951.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Fontbonne College in 1963 and a master’s degree in library science from Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois, in 1969.
Sister Ann’s 80 years of service as a Sister of St. Joseph were dedicated to education and deaf ministry. Her first 26 years were served in Catholic schools. From 1948 to 1960, Sister Ann taught at Holy Cross Grade School in Champaign, Illinois. In the 1960s, she taught in St. Louis and in Kansas City, Missouri. She was principal and teacher at St. John the Evangelist Grade School in Valdosta, Georgia, then librarian at St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City (1969-74).
Born of deaf parents, Sister Ann long desired to serve that community. Her extensive service in deaf ministry began in 1974 when she became the first full-time deaf minister in the Kansas City area, a ministry that stretched nearly 40 years and extended far beyond diocesan and Catholic boundaries. She headed the Kansas City, Kansas, archdiocesan Office of Ministry to the Deaf from 1974 to 2001. For the next 14 years, she continued serving that community as a volunteer.
In 2005, Sister Ann received the Person of the Year Award from the National Catholic Office of the Deaf in recognition for the ways she encouraged those too often forgotten to use their many gifts in service of the Church.
She retired in 2015 and lived at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis where she continued to carry out her ministry of prayer and presence.
Sister Ann donated her body to science.
