A funeral Mass for Sister Judith Hebert, DC, was celebrated Sept. 22 at Christ the King Church in University City. Sister Judith died Sept. 17 at the Olive Residence in St. Louis at the age of 85.
The youngest of six children, Sister Judith was born on Aug. 31, 1937, in Boston to Margaret Barbara (Melrose) and Leonard Louis Hebert. She entered the Daughters of Charity on June 5, 1958, at Marillac Provincial House in Normandy, and attended Marillac College, earning a bachelor’s in education in 1961.
Sister Judith earned two master’s degrees: the first in special education from George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee (1969); and the second in counseling from Webster University in St. Louis (1998).
Sister Judith served most of her active ministry in teaching, especially in special needs education, and then in counseling. She began her teaching ministry in 1961 as a primary teacher at St. Ann School, Dallas, Texas (1961-64). She was then missioned to Kansas City, Missouri, where she served at Marillac Center both as a primary special education teacher (1964-72) and, three years later, as department head (1967-72). For the next seven years, Sister Judith served at Holy Trinity School in Dallas, Texas, where she continued to teach primary students with special needs and serve as department head (1972-79). In 1979, Sister Judith returned to Kansas City, where she served as educational diagnostician at Marillac Center (1972-82) and as an educational diagnostician and teacher at the diocesan Education Office (1982-86).
For the remainder of her ministry, Sister Judith served in the Archdiocese of St. Louis throughout the St. Louis area: as a school examiner-consultant at the archdiocesan Department of Special Education (1986-88); a Life Crisis Hotline volunteer (1995-98); an internship-consultant at the Kathy Weinman Child Advocacy Center (1998-2000); a professional counselor at Catholic Family Services in Florissant (1999-2014); and as a prison minister at the medium-security institution on Hall Street and at St. Louis Jail in Clayton (both beginning in 2014, until COVID-19 suspended the service).
Sister Judith is survived by her sister, Rosemary, and her brother, Dick (Joan) Hebert; several nieces and nephews and their families and her sisters in community. Burial was in Marillac Cemetery in Normandy.
