Born in Arkansas City, Kansas, her father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and the family lived in a converted box car that could be moved to new locations as needed. After her high school graduation, she worked in a doctor’s office laboratory, then served as switchboard operator at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, where she came to know the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville, Missouri. After attending a retreat at Mount Alverno Convent, she entered the congregation in 1951. She received the name Sister Mary Dolorosa, and she professed final vows in 1956.

She served at hospitals in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Hannibal, Missouri, initially. She took art lessons and served as treasurer of an arts and crafts guild. For three summers she stayed at Saint Louis University to complete certification as a dietary manager.

In 1978, she returned to St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. She said she enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with patients and to be for them “the loving, serving, compassionate, healing presence of Jesus.” From 2000 through mid-2007 she served as a Sister of Hospitality and cared for the chapel. In May 2007, she moved to St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis, serving as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. She lived at St. Mary of the Angels Convent until moving to The Sarah Community in August 2010.

Sister Judith Ann enjoyed nature, arts and crafts and the experience of airplanes in flight.

Survivors include her stepsister, Joan Faught of Del City, Oklahoma. Burial will take place at Resurrection Cemetery.