A memorial Mass for Sister Frances Dillman, a retired nurse and volunteer, was celebrated Jan. 11 at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Frances died Jan. 4 at Nazareth at age 87.
Born in St. Mary’s, Kansas, Sister Frances entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1954 and was received into the novitiate as Sister Mary Rachel in 1955. She made her final profession in 1962. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1959.
Sister Frances began her ministry in health care as a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood in 1959. She then served as a nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City for the next five years. In 1967, Sister Frances returned to St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood as a resident for a year before serving in the same role at Nazareth Convent in St. Louis until 1973. She was a resident and a clerical worker at Nazareth until 1981, when she began a five-year stint as a pastoral care volunteer at All Saints Parish in St. Louis.
In 1986, Sister Frances once more returned to the Kansas City area where she was a volunteer, a geriatric assistant and then a role in home service for CSJ Care. She retired in 2007 and served as a volunteer. In 2013, she moved to Nazareth Living Center.
