Obituaries

OBITUARY | Sister Mary Sharon Rempe, SSND

Sr. Rempe

A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Sharon Rempe, SSND, was celebrated Sept. 9 at Theresa Center Chapel in St. Louis. Sister Sharon died Sept. 3 at SSM Health DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton. She was 96.

She was born to Cecelia (Lienert) and William Rempe in Hebron, Nebraska, on Dec. 22, 1925. On Christmas Day in 1925, she was baptized at Sacred Heart Church in Hebron and named Sophie Magdalene, after her two grandmothers. Sophie was the sixth of seven children in the family of five girls and two boys.

At the age of 5, Sophie entered first grade at Sacred Heart School where she was taught by School Sisters of Notre Dame. When she was 7 years old, her oldest sister Mary (Sister Merita) entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in St. Louis. Graduating from elementary school, Sophie dreaded going to the public high school. One of the sisters suggested that she might go to the aspiranture at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. Her father and sister, Rose, drove her to St. Louis. This perfect solution to her dread of high school very quickly gave way to an ardent desire to return home. Her father told her, “You do not quit anything until you have tried it. You are always welcome at home, but first you have to give this a try.” The next months were difficult ones, but eventually, she let God take over and she graduated after her four years of high school.

Following graduation, Sophie was employed at the local “Five and Dime” store. However, God continued to call her and seven months later, she entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Jan. 17, 1944. She was received into the Novitiate on July 30, 1945, and given the name Mary Sharon. Her profession of first vows was on July 31, 1946, and final vows on July 31, 1952.

Sister Sharon was an educator for 25 years. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, she served as a teacher at Rosati-Kain and Rosary high schools, and at schools in Texas and California. She was a counselor for 12 years at St. Francis Borgia High School in Washington and at two high schools in Illinois.

In 1979, Sister Sharon’s aging mother required someone to live with her. Sister Sharon and Sister Mary (Merita) shared this ministry. Sister Mary was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1989. Between 1981-96, Sister Sharon spent 13 years caring for her mother in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her mother died one month before her 107th birthday in 1996.

Returning to the St. Louis area, Sister Sharon became a volunteer at various schools. During the next 18 years, she was a volunteer at Notre Dame High School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for a semester; Our Lady of Loretto, St. Aloysius, St. John Neumann and Christ Light of the Nations elementary schools and at Rosary and Trinity high schools, all in St. Louis. In 2014, she was missioned to Veronica House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, and following hip surgery in 2017, to Anna House.

Burial was in Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.