A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated for Sister Barbara Marie McInturff, SSND, on May 20 at Theresa Center. Sister Barbara Marie, 88, died peacefully on May 13 at Mary Queen and Mother Center in St. Louis with family members keeping vigil.
The eldest of five children, she was born to Agnes (Nahlik) and Charles McInturff on March 29, 1936, in St. Louis. She was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 12, 1936, at St. John Nepomuk Church and named Agnes Marie.
Agnes attended St. John Nepomuk Grade School and St. Francis de Sales High School where she was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND). She often assisted the sisters by helping in the convent and in the parish church.
She entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa, St. Louis, on Jan. 10, 1954. She was received as a novice on July 31, 1954, and given the name Barbara Marie. She professed first vows on Aug. 1, 1955, and final vows on Aug. 1, 1961.
Sister Barbara Marie received a bachelor’s degree in history from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1962 and a master’s degree in elementary administration from Saint Louis University in 1972.
Sister Barbara Marie ministered 20 years in elementary education throughout the St. Louis area. She was a teacher at St. Wenceslaus, St. William and Notre Dame Elementary schools. She was also a principal at St. Wenceslaus for four years.
In 1975, she began an 11-year ministry of working with adolescent girls at Evergreen Hills Home for Girls in Dittmer, an extension of the Juvenile Division of Jefferson County. As a house parent, she helped to provide a safe home, stability and an education for abused and neglected teenage girls who were placed there by the Division of Family Services. She also taught part-time at Our Lady Queen of Peace at House Springs for six of those years.
In 1987, Sister Barbara Marie began a new ministry, serving first in the finance office and then as treasurer for the former St. Louis Province from 1990-2001. Following a sabbatical, she became the finance director at Notre Dame High School in St. Louis. In 2012, she transitioned to the status of assistant and then volunteer in the finance office.
As her memory began to fail her, Sister Barbara Marie moved to St. Louis Altenheim in 2019 and two years later to Mary Queen and Mother Center in St. Louis.
Sister Barbara Marie is survived by her three sisters, Mary Frances Urbeck, Carolyn Ann Sumpter and Charleen Ann Durbin, and her brother, Lawrence. She was preceded in death by her parents, Agnes and Charles McInturff.
Sister Barbara Marie was a fun-loving, kind and gentle woman. She was an avid fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. She loved God’s nature and enjoyed being outdoors. She would often speak of gardening with her father when she was a child. She was devoted to her family and they were devoted to her. She had a sincere love for the poor and would do what she could to assist those at the girls’ home and at Notre Dame High School.
Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.
