Sister Judith Marie died May 19 at Anna House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 96 years old and a School Sister of Notre Dame for 74 years.

Born in St. Louis, she entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1943 and was received into the novitiate in 1945. She professed first vows in 1946 and final vows in 1952. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1955 and a master’s degree in elementary administration from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio in 1964.

Sister Judith Marie ministered in Catholic education for 46 years, teaching at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in St. Louis, St. Joseph School in Manchester and Our Lady of Lourdes School in Washington. She also taught at St. George School in Linn, Missouri, and in Louisiana and Texas. She was a teacher and principal at St. Joseph School in Freeburg, Illinois.

After retiring, she performed community service at Villa Gesu in St. Louis as a dining room aide and assisted in the occupational therapy department. When Villa Gesu closed, she moved to Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Spanish Lake and did volunteer service. She also was a volunteer librarian for St. John Neumann School. For seven years, she was a volunteer at Village North Health Care Retirement Home in St. Louis, where she and Sister Doris Probst, SSND, worked to open a chapel, so Catholics could have Mass at the facility. From 2012 until her death, she resided at The Sarah Community, first at Veronica House and then at Anna House.

Survivors include two sisters, Jane Szostek and Judith Thiessen. Burial was in Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.