A funeral service for Loretto Sister Nancy Finneran (formerly Sister M. Gerard) was celebrated April 29 in the Church of the Seven Dolors on the grounds of Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky. A longtime educator and social justice advocate, Sister Nancy died April 25 at Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary. She was 85 and died on the 67th anniversary of her life as a Sister of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross.

Born in Granite City, Illinois, she and her family moved to St. Louis and Nancy attended St. Rose of Lima School and Loretto Academy, graduating in 1952. Later that same year, she entered the Sisters of Loretto. She was received into the Sisters of Loretto in 1953, taking the habit and the name Sister M. Gerard. She made her first vows in 1955 and her final vows in 1958.

At Webster College (now University), Sister Nancy earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1957 and a master’s degree in education, with an emphasis in mathematics, in 1969. Sister Nancy also did graduate studies in community development at the University of Louisville in 1977 and earned a master’s degree in religious studies from Mundelein College, Chicago, in 1982.

In the St. Louis Archdiocese, Sister Nancy resided at Visitation-Holy Ghost School, St. Louis (1971-1972), while she was a tutor at the Loretto Learning Center in Webster Groves. From 2007-13, she was a member of the Hampton/Midtown Kiwanis Club of St. Louis, which serves children worldwide, and volunteered with Senior Connections in St. Louis.

Sister Nancy taught in Colorado, Illinois and Kentucky. She also served as regional coordinator of NETWORK at the Peace and Justice Center in Louisville, conducted research for the Peace and Justice Commission of the Archdiocese of Louisville, was resource coordinator for the Justice and Peace Office at the Loretto Central Office, Littleton, Colorado, and served as Loretto NGO Representative at the United Nations in New York.

She retired to the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in 2013.

Survivors include a brother, Thomas Finneran of Florissant. Burial was to be in the Loretto Motherhouse Cemetery.