A funeral Mass for Sister Estelle Sullentrup, CPPS, was celebrated May 3. Sister Estelle died on April 26. She was 98 years old.
Estelle Sullentrup was born on Nov. 8, 1923, the only daughter of Cecilia (Maune) and John Sullentrup. She had four brothers, one older who died at birth and three younger. Sister Estelle entered the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood novitiate in 1942, receiving the name Sister Tarcisia. She professed first vows on Aug. 10, 1944. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education at Quincy College in Quincy, Illinois.
For 58 years, Sister Estelle brought a quiet, gentle strength to elementary school classrooms. In Missouri, she taught at St. Agnes in Bloomsdale; Our Lady Help of Christians in Weingarten; St. Theodore in Flint Hill; All Saints in St. Peters; Assumption in Mattese; St. Brendan in Mexico; Sacred Heart in Florissant; St. Lawrence the Martyr in Bridgeton; and St. Elizabeth Academy and Holy Family in St. Louis. She also taught at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and at St. Rose of Lima in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Her deep love and respect for each student was reciprocated by their love and respect for her.
After retiring from teaching, she served for 19 years in pastoral care at DePaul Health Center. She described this ministry as a great blessing, and it is easy to imagine what a blessing she was to the patients she visited.
Always gracious, gentle, generous, and grateful, Sister Estelle’s most frequent words may have been “thank you.” She sent notes of thanks for the smallest kindness and concluded every visit and phone call with “thank you.”
She was preceded in death by her parents and by her brothers, John, Harold and Glennon. Burial was in the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood cemetery.
