Obituaries

OBITUARY | Sister Mary Edith Juergensmeyer, SSND

Sr. Juergensmeyer

A funeral Mass was celebrated for Sister Mary Edith Juergensmeyer, SSND, Jan. 21 at Theresa Center in St. Louis. Sister Edith died Jan. 12 at Anna House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton at the age of 90.

Sister Edith was born on May 8, 1931, the youngest of four children of Louise (Schaefer) and Conrad Juergensmeyer near Koelztown, Missouri. She was baptized the next day at St. Boniface Church and given the name Marie Elizabeth.

Marie attended St. Boniface School, where she was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Shortly after her eighth-grade graduation, she and a friend visited Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis, and everyone thought she would attend the aspiranture. However, she did not wish to go. Instead, she attended high school in Argyle, Missouri, where there were two grades and 16 students in the school. At the end of that year, the county closed the school because it was too expensive for such a small group. Then, she attended school in Freeburg, Missouri, where sisters were teaching. During the next few months, Marie became more aware of her call to religious life. She discontinued her education at Freeburg High School and entered the aspiranture in Sancta Maria in Ripa as a sophomore on Nov. 1, 1946.

Marie entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Aug. 31, 1949. After a year of college courses, she was missioned to Aviston, Illinois, to teach. She was received into the novitiate on July 30, 1951, and given the name Mary Edith. She pronounced her first vows on Aug. 1, 1952, and final vows on Aug. 1, 1958.

Sister Edith earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1957 and a master’s degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville in 1973. Sister Edith was a primary teacher at Sacred Heart in Morrilton, Arkansas, and St. Mary in Fort Madison, Iowa.

In 1960, a summer of service at Villa Gesu, the retirement home for the former St. Louis Province, resulted in Sister Edith’s staying at Villa Gesu to assist in supervising the maintenance of the facility, in gardening and helping out wherever she was needed. After four years, she returned to the classroom.

For the next 24 years, she taught at St. Paul in Highland, Illinois; St. Peter in Jefferson City, Missouri; Immaculate Conception in Loose Creek, Missouri; and Sacred Heart in Rich Fountain, Missouri. Following a four-month sabbatical at the former St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, she spent the remainder of that year helping children understand the Mass and working with the pastoral minister at St. Michael in Russellville.

The following year, she combined a part-time position in pastoral ministry at Rich Fountain and a weekend position ministering to abused women at the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center in Jefferson City. After five years, she again ministered at St. Peter in Jefferson City, this time as the director of religious education and later doing volunteer service within the parish. She visited the nursing homes and shut-ins to care for their sacramental needs.

In 2012, she moved to Immaculate Conception in Loose Creek and continued to do volunteer service until 2015, when she was missioned to Veronica House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was transferred to Anna House in January 2017.

Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.