A funeral Mass for Sister Mary David Debrecht was celebrated Sept. 9 at St. Joseph Chapel in O’Fallon. Sister Mary David, a Sister of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, died Aug. 29 at the age of 102.
Gertrude Mary Debrecht was born in O’Fallon, Missouri, on Feb. 20, 1922, the second of four children of Edwin and Magdalena (Halter) Debrecht. After graduation from Assumption High School, Gertrude took college classes during the summer and began teaching in the fall at Oak Ridge, a one-room school near her family home. Though she put her heart and soul into teaching, she found it difficult.
When the opportunity arose for a part-time job at the Agricultural Office in St. Charles, she readily accepted. Later she was offered a full-time bookkeeping position at International Shoe Company. She loved office work.
Despite her love for her job and her reluctance to leave her family, the call to religious life, which had been with her from an early age, did not subside. On Aug. 20, 1944, when she was “22-and-a-half on the dot,” she left for the convent. She was received into the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood novitiate on July 25, 1945, and was given the name Sister Mary David. She professed first vows on Aug. 10, 1947.
Sister Mary David earned a bachelor’s degree in business education at Fontbonne College in St. Louis, the first to earn that degree from Fontbonne. She earned a master’s degree in business education at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Sister Mary David taught elementary grades at Sacred Heart in Columbia, Missouri, and at St. Henry in Charleston, Missouri. She taught business education at Bishop DuBourg High School in St. Louis. Sister Mary David spent much of her life in service to her community as secretary general, council member and treasurer general. She also served in the finance offices of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Missionaries of LaSallette, both in St. Louis.
Sister Mary David was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings and their spouses, Wilfred Debrecht, Mary (Robert) Kelly and Thomas (Lenore) Debrecht. She is survived by nieces, nephews and many friends. Burial was in the Assumption Parish Cemetery in O’Fallon.
