Born in Joplin, Mo., she began her nursing education at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and worked there in labor and delivery for three years and then for a year with the American Red Cross with the mobile blood donation unit. After returning to work at the hospital, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1954 and made final profession in 1962.

Sister Mary Christopher earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Marymount College in Salina, Kan., in 1965 and master’s degree in nursing from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City in 1972.

She served as a nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood from 1957-58 and 1967-70 and nursing service director at Nazareth Convent in St. Louis from 1965-67. She was a nurse-midwife at City Hospital in St. Louis from 1972-77 and Yeatman Union-Sarah Health Center in St. Louis from 1979-83. She worked as a paramedical examiner in St. Louis from 1983 until her retirement in 1999.

Sister Mary Christopher also worked in nursing in Kansas City, Mo. In retirement, she volunteered as a driver for other Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Louis and dedicated herself to her hobbies of photography and wood carving. She moved to Nazareth in 2013.

Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.