A funeral Mass for Sister Mary André Aubuchon, SSND, was celebrated Oct. 31 at Theresa Center Chapel at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. Sister Mary André, a School Sister of Notre Dame, died Oct. 27 at Anna House-The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 92 years old.
She was the second of five children of Andrew and Mary Catherine (Jennemann) Aubuchon, born in the family home in St. Louis on Aug. 17, 1932. She was baptized on Aug. 28, 1932, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in St. Louis and named Mary Jean Frances.
Mary Jean attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, where she met the School Sisters of Notre Dame, helping the sisters in the summer. She attended St. Alphonsus “Rock” High School in St. Louis, which was also staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
During her freshman and sophomore years, she worked with the Carmelite Sisters in Clayton. Her desire to become a religious sister was deepened, but she did not feel drawn to the life of a cloistered nun. After her father died during her senior year follwing a battle with cancer, Mary Jean postponed joining a religious order and took a job as a bookkeeper with Laclede Gas Company.
She entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Aug. 28, 1951. She was received into the novitiate on Aug. 1, 1953, and given the name Mary André in honor of her parents. She professed first vows on Aug. 2, 1954, and final vows on Aug. 2, 1960. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1956 and a master’s degree in history from the University of Notre Dame in 1967.
During her second year in the juniorate, Sister Mary André was missioned to teach primary children at St. Liborius School in St. Louis. For the next 40 years of her teaching career, she taught in secondary schools across several midwestern states. She taught at Rosati-Kain High School, St. Alphonsus “Rock” High School, Rosary High School and Cardinal Ritter Prep High School, all in St. Louis. She also taught in Teutopolis and Quincy, Illinois, and Burlington, Iowa.
In 1971, she received a Fullbright Scholarship to study and travel in India for two months, after which she felt a great desire to become a missionary. In 1973, the former St. Louis Province sent four sisters to Yengema, Sierra Leone, West Africa, to open a division for girls in the all-boys school, where she served as headmistress for three years before returning to the United States.
In 1990, she returned to Sierra Leone and taught at Kabala Secondary School for five years. The civil war in 1995 forced the sisters to leave Sierra Leone. She later went to Ghana to teach at the Notre Dame Girls Senior High School in Sunyani for two years. Starting in 1998, she was secretary to the District Leader in Nsawam for a term of five years.
After a period of renewal in 2003, she served as a volunteer at the former Notre Dame Tutorial (Learning) Center on the Sancta Maria in Ripa campus in St. Louis and at Cardinal Ritter Prep High School. In 2015, she performed community service at Theresa Center. She was missioned to Veronica House-The Sarah Community in 2018 and to Anna House in 2021. She was placed in hospice care in October.
Sister Mary André is survived by her brother, James Aubuchon; as well as nieces, nephews, School Sisters of Notre Dame, SSND associates and friends. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.
