Obituary | Sr. Ann Johnson, SL
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
A memorial Mass was celebrated for Loretto Sister Ann Johnson at Seven Holy Founders Church, 6741 Rock Hill Road in Affton.
Sister Ann taught in St. Louis public and parochial elementary schools for nearly 60 years. Most recently, she volunteered at Seven Holy Founders School in Affton, where she helped first- and second-graders and assisted in the cafeteria. Sister Ann died of pancreatic cancer July 1 at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, Ky. She was 79 and in her 61st year as a Sister of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross.
Born in St. Louis and baptized Beverly Johnson, she graduated from Loretto Academy in St. Louis in 1950 and entered the Loretto novitiate that same year. She was received into the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross in 1951 and took the name Sister Dennis Ann. She made her first vows in 1953 and her final vows in 1956.
Sister Ann attended Loretto Heights College in Denver where she earned a bachelor's degree in history with a minor in education in 1960 and a master's degree in world cultures in 1970. She also completed additional studies at Webster University in Webster Groves to update her teaching certification.
Her first teaching assignments were in Colorado and Illinois. In the St. Louis Archdiocese, Sister Ann taught at St. Paul the Apostle School in Pine Lawn from 1964-70. She then taught in St. Louis Public Schools at Lowell Public School, 1970; Dessalines School, 1970-74; Mark Twain School, 1974-83; and Shepard School, 1983-94. From 1994-97, she taught at Cathedral School in St. Louis and from 1997 to 2009, Sister Ann taught at St. Martin of Tours School in Lemay.
In 2009, she began volunteering at Seven Holy Founders School. She later moved to the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx when her health began to deteriorate.
Throughout her years of service, she showed a great concern for young children and frequently had raised money to help provide them with clothing and school lunches. Sister Ann would clean, cook and house sit, donating her earnings to help the poor.
Survivors include her sister, Joan Lilly of St. Louis, and her brother, Dennis Johnson of Manteca, Calif.
A funeral Mass was celebrated at the Loretto Motherhouse July 3. Sister Ann donated her body to science to the University of Kentucky in Louisville.
