Sister Mary Ann Huelsing, a School Sister of Notre Dame, died, Sept. 16 at Ana House of the Sarah Community in Bridgeton.
Born in St. Louis, she attended Notre Dame High School and entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa in 1944. She was received into the novitiate in 1946 and given the name Paul Francis. She professed first vows in 1947 and final vows in 1953. She later returned to her baptismal name.
Sister Mary Ann earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the former Notre Dame College in Lemay in 1957 and a master’s degree in education from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, in 1979.
Following profession, Sister Mary Ann taught at St. Bernadette School in Lemay, Sacred Heart in Eureka and St. Michael in Shrewsbury. She also taught in Chamois, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois. In addition to teaching, she led church music, choir and piano students.
Sister Mary Ann had frequently volunteered to go to Japan after the mission was opened in 1948. Ten years later, she left for Japan. She studied the Japanese language in Tokyo and then taught at Notre Dame Jogakuin, Kyoto and was co-principal of Nigawa Gakuin girls’ school. She spent a year of study at St. Louis University and completed her years in Japan teaching in an all-boys’ school, Nanzan Gakuen, in Nagoya.
Returning to the United States in 1970, Sister Mary Ann taught at St. Dominic Savio in Affton, was a principal at a school in Quincy, Illinois, and taught in Effingham, Illinois, and Linn, Missouri.
In 1982, she began a series of positions, including maintenance administrator at Notre Dame Hall; manager of the Webbe and Blumeyer Elderly Apartments under the auspices of Cardinal Ritter Institute; volunteer English tutor at Hosea House; administrative assistant, operations manager and volunteer coordinator at Maria Center; registrar at Cardinal Ritter College Prep; phone volunteer at the Suicide Hotline; guest hostess at Sancta Maria in Ripa; weekend housemother at Ronald McDonald House; assistant local leader at Ripa; volunteer at United Way of St. Louis working for the 100 Neediest Cases annual appeal; and receptionist at Birthright of St. Louis.
Sister Mary Ann was also a program director for the Association for Independent Living in Dallas for three years. She retired at Sancta Maria in Ripa in 2012 and continued volunteer ministry at Caroline Center and the Gift Gallery. In 2017, she moved to Veronica House, The Sarah Community in Bridgeton.
Survivors include two sisters, Joan Thum and Margaret O’Fallon. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.
