A funeral Mass for Sister Marianne Dwyer was celebrated March 18 at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Marianne, 84, died March 3 at Nazareth of congestive heart failure.
Born in St. Louis, she worked for a year after high school at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., attended Harris Teachers College and Saint Louis University and taught third-graders at St. Edward School in St. Louis. She entered Sisters of St. Joseph in 1961 and made her final profession in 1969.
Sister Marianne earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Fontbonne College in 1966 and a master’s degree in English literature from Ohio State University in 1975.
Her first assignment was teaching at St. Margaret of Scotland School in St. Louis in 1966. She taught English at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florissant from 1966-70 where she also worked with students on the school newspaper and taught remedial reading and writing. From 1970-77 she taught at St. Joseph’s Academy in Frontenac. She then taught at a high school in Indianapolis.
Sister Marianne served at St. Cecilia School in St. Louis as secretary from 1979-81 and taught at Sts. John and James School in Ferguson from 1981-83. She later served briefly in the province treasurer office and then from 1983-1992 as publications coordinator for the province. In the 1990s she served as adult education coordinator at the St. Louis Public Schools, administrative secretary at Nazareth Living Center and education coordinator at the Literacy Council of Greater St. Louis before teaching at the Carondelet Family Literacy Program, Blow Community Education Center in an English as a second Language Program and at the St. Joseph Outreach Center. She then served as academic coordinator and a teacher at the Carondelet Family Literacy Center before retiring in 2010 to Nazareth and volunteering as library coordinator.
Sister Marianne enjoyed teaching adults to read. She said she saw some gain the confidence to socialize and feel comfortable being with their peers at work. She worked with employees at the Carondelet motherhouse and at Nazareth, helping them to pass their GED and achieve lifelong dreams. Her favorite saying was that it’s “easier to give than to receive.”
Survivors include a sister, Fran Wurm of O’Fallon, and a brother, Jim Dwyer of St. Charles. Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
