A funeral Mass for Sister Barbara Boedeker was celebrated Nov. 3 at the School Sisters of Notre Dame Theresa Center chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Barbara died Oct. 25 at SSM Health DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton. She was 81 years old.
Sister Barbara was born in St. Louis on April 25, 1940, the oldest of seven children to Rosella (Telscher) and Francis Boedeker. She attended All Souls School in Overland, where she was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She desired to become part of the community and entered the aspiranture at Sancta Maria in Ripa for her high school education.
She entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame on July 28, 1959, and received the name Francella Marie. She professed her first vows on July 29, 1960, and final vows in on July 29, 1966. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1962 from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis.
After a year in the juniorate, Sister Barbara was missioned to St. Peter School in St. Charles, where she taught for a teacher who was ill. Six weeks later, she was assigned to Sacred Heart School in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Sister Barbara was an elementary school teacher for another 31 years ministering at schools in Illinois and Missouri. Schools in Missouri included Most Pure Heart of Mary in Chamois; St. Joseph in Apple Creek; St. Joseph in Kimmswick; St. Aloysius in St. Louis; All Souls in Overland; and Our Lady in Festus. She also was principal at St. Joseph in Apple Creek for two years and later tutored at St. Gabriel in St. Louis.
She also assisted as an aide in the occupational therapy department at Villa Gesu, the retirement home for the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was a driver at Sancta Maria in Ripa, and since 1999 was a volunteer for many community service assignments at Sancta Maria in Ripa. She also assisted in record-keeping related to health insurance issues for Anna House and Veronica House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton.
In 2008, Sister Barbara was missioned to Veronica House, and in 2016 moved to Anna House. She also was known for making thousands of butterflies out of two-liter plastic bottles, which were sold to benefit missions in Africa and Honduras.
Survivors include three sisters, Joyce Schene of Florissant, Donna Pratt or Fairview, Oregon, and Phyllis Morgan of Florissant; and two brothers, Bernard Boedeker of St. Charles and Gerard Boedeker of Ferguson. Burial was in Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.
