A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Frances (Neil Marie) Flynn, SSND, was celebrated April 7 at Theresa Center Chapel at Sancta Maria in Ripa. She died March 26 at age 79.
The second child and only girl was born to Estelle (Myerscough) and Francis Flynn in St. Louis on Feb. 12, 1947. She was baptized at Blessed Sacrament Church on Feb. 23, 1947, and named Mary Frances.
Mary Fran attended St. Philip Neri School and Rosati-Kain High School, where she met the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
A time of prayer and reflection led her to enter the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was influenced to enter religious life by her parents, family members who entered religious life and her SSND high school teachers.
She entered the postulancy at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Aug. 25, 1966. She was received into the novitiate on July 27, 1967, at the Cathedral of St. Louis and given the name Neil Marie. She professed first vows on July 28, 1968, at St. Martin of Tours in Lemay and final vows on May 21, 1972, at St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis. Later, she returned to her baptismal name.
Sister Mary Fran received a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1969 and a master’s degree in elementary administration from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa in 1988.
She taught for 18 years, teaching at St. Francis de Sales and Notre Dame in St. Louis; St. Peter Cathedral in Belleville, Illinois; and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Indio, California. She was a principal at St. Peter and St. Cletus in St. Charles.
She served at the motherhouse and then became the administrator there for four years. Following a sabbatical, she spent the next 12 years serving as administrative assistant for various health care agencies and hospitals.
She then served as program coordinator for Mentor St. Louis for three years. In 2010, she served in campus ministry in Rolla. She served for 14 years in the Diocese of Belleville as an administrative assistant in pastoral studies and then as archivist for the diocese.
She was also engaged in prison ministry, putting on retreats.
She moved to Elizabeth House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton in December 2025. In mid-March, she was placed on hospice.
Sister Mary Fran was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her brothers, Mark (Ellie) Flynn of Seattle, Washington; Timothy (Julie) Flynn of Kansas City, Missouri; Niel (Sue) Flynn of Springfield, Missouri; and Daniel (Cathy) Flynn of St. Louis.
Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.
