Born in Mobile, Alabama, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1945 and was received into the novitiate in 1946 as Sister Maria Giovanni. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fontbonne College in 1981.

For much of her 60 years of active ministry, Sister Justine served in education at various grade schools around the country.

In the early days of her ministry, Sister Justine was a child care worker at St. Joseph Carondelet Child Center in Chicago. She then taught at Most Holy Rosary and at St. Teresa of Avila Schools in St. Louis.

From 1951 to 1962, she taught at grade schools in Chicago, in Mobile and at St. Leo in St. Louis. In the 1960s, she taught at St. Thomas the Apostle in Florissant, St. Mary Magdalen in St. Louis and a school in Kansas City, Missouri. In the early 1970s, she taught in Mobile.

From 1975 to 1980, she was the dorm unit supervisor for the Village of St. Joseph in Atlanta. For a brief time, she worked at the Sisters of St. Joseph Provincial House in St. Louis as a mailroom assistant. In 1981, she returned to education, teaching in Edwardsville, Illinois, until 1987.

For the next 20 years, she lived and served at a grade school in Valdosta, Georgia. Sister Justine retired in 2007 and remained in Valdosta serving in volunteer ministry until 2019. She then moved to Nazareth Living Center.

Funeral arrangements are pending.