A funeral Mass for Sister Winifred “Winnie” Adelsberger, CSJ, was celebrated on May 21 at Nazareth Living Center in south St. Louis County. Sister Winifred died May 13 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 100 years old.
Sister Winifred, baptized Mary Winifred, was born on Jan. 23, 1925, in St. Louis to parents Stephen S. and Winifred (O’Neill) Adelsberger. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1941 and was received into the novitiate in 1942 as Sister Mary Leander. She received a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Fontbonne College (now University) in 1955 and a master’s degree in Latin from St. Louis University in 1964.
Sister Winifred devoted more than 60 years of ministry to education. She began in the 1940s at Holy Rosary School and St. Louis Cathedral School in St. Louis. She continued into the 1950s at St. Patrick in Rolla, St. Edward in St. Louis and Sacred Heart in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
She began teaching on the high school level in 1956, first at St. Thomas Aquinas in Florissant. After assisting in the opening of a new parish high school in Chicago where she taught for six years, she returned to Missouri and taught at Redemptorist in Kansas City.
In the early 1960s, she taught at St. Anthony High School in south St. Louis. From 1966-71, she was a teacher and assistant administrator at St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Louis, then returned to St. Thomas Aquinas High School for 12 years as administrator and principal.
From 1983-86, Sister Winifred worked for the Catholic Education Office in the Archdiocese of St. Louis as the coordinator of school data services, during which time computer scheduling was introduced into the archdiocesan high schools.
Serving her Sisters of St. Joseph community, she worked at the Congregational Center as an administrative assistant until she retired in 2002. For the next 17 years, she was active in volunteer ministry at St. Joseph’s Academy. She moved to Nazareth Living Center in 2019 and carried out her mission of prayer and presence.
Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
