Sr. Mary G. Heiner, CSJ

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Sr. Heiner

A funeral Mass was celebrated Aug. 12 at Nazareth Living Center in Oakville for Sister Mary Grace Heiner, a retired teacher and office administrator who was an academic dean at St. Teresa's College in Kansas City, Mo., and later worked at Fontbonne College in Clayton.

Sister Mary Grace, 103, died Aug. 9 at Nazareth of dementia. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1928 and made her final profession in 1934. She received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Fontbonne College in 1928, a master's in inorganic chemistry from St. Louis University in 1933 and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1949.

The St. Louis native attended Cathedral Grade School and Rosati Kain High School. At Fontbonne, she fondly recalled seeing the Sisters of St. Joseph novices and though the students could not talk to them as they would pass each other in the hall, the girls would give candy bars to the novices.

Then, she and 15 other women gathered together to enter religious life at Carondelet. She said one woman was a widow who had completed her nursing degree; two had finished business school; one completed work in a junior college; a few had been secretaries and the rest had just graduated from high school.

In 1929, Sister Mary Grace received the habit and name Sister Henrietta Eileen. She began teaching on the secondary level at St. Joseph Academy in Chilicothe, Mo. She was sent in 1934, to teach at St. Teresa Academy/College of St. Teresa in Kansas City, Mo. For the next six years she taught chemistry there.

After receiving her doctorate, she served at St. Teresa as a faculty member, director of adult education and academic dean. In 1963, she began her ministry of teaching at Fontbonne College. She taught full time until 1972. While teaching and living at Fontbonne she made audio tapes for the blind, mostly on chemistry. At the age of 65 she was asked to take over the business office at Fontbonne. She also worked with the Junior Sisters by serving as the assistant to the juniorate director.

In 1976 she moved to Carondelet where for the next 12 years she served on the provincialate staff. She also volunteered for the Literacy Council of Greater St. Louis.