A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Ann Lavin was to be celebrated June 22 at Nazareth Living Center in south St. Louis County. Sister Mary Ann, 85, died June 19 at Nazareth of end stages of dementia. She served for more than 50 years as an educator.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1949 and made her final profession in 1957. She began her college work with a special interest in art and art education and received a bachelor's degree in art from Fontbonne University in 1965. She received a master's degree in theology from St. Mary's University in San Antonio in 1973.

Sister Mary Ann began teaching on the elementary level in St. Louis in 1952. She taught first-graders at the Nativity of Our Lord School in St. Louis for 10 years, including helping them prepare for First Communion. In 1962, she began a three-year stint as a teacher in the first and second grades at St. Mary Grade School in Bridgeton. Sister Mary Ann began teaching art, developmental reading and religion at the high school level in 1965 in Waco, Texas. Five years later, she became an art and religion teacher at St. Teresa's Academy in Kansas City, where she remained for the next 33 years, serving as a volunteer in the archives for the last three years.

In 2003, Sister Mary Ann was a driver for CSJ Home Care of Kansas City. She lived at Nazareth Living Center since 2004 and was known for saying, "Golly, golly, golly" as a way of greeting people with enthusiasm and for filling bird feeders on the property. Her artwork is displayed around Nazareth, including a large mural of St. Joseph which also highlights the works of the sisters.

Survivors include two brothers, Michael Lavin of Warsaw, Mo., and James Lavin of Kansas City, Mo. Burial was to be in Resurrection Cemetery.