Rest in peace, Maryknoll Sister Marie Corinne Rost

CLICK HERE to find a short memorial video about Sr. Marie Corine Rost. 

Jefferson City native Maryknoll Sister Marie Corinne Rost died on Sept. 1 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, New York.

She had been a Maryknoll Sister for 82 years and celebrated her 102nd birthday in July.

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Sept. 6 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. Burial was in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the Center grounds.

Sr. Marie Corinne was born in Jefferson City, on July 29, 1917, a daughter of Louis Henry and Euphemia J. (Dudenhoeffer) Rost, and given the name Anna Marie.

She attended St. Peter’s High School — predecessor of Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City — and graduated in 1935.

From 1935-37, she studied at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas.

From her home parish of Immaculate Conception in Jefferson City, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Maryknoll, New York, on July 5, 1937.

At her reception, she received the religious name, Sister Marie Corinne.

She made her first profession of vows on Jan. 6, 1940, at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll and professed final vows on the same date in 1943 in San Juan Bautista, California.

From 1939-42, she studied at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in New York and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music.

 In 1942, she was assigned to San Juan Bautista in Central California, there she served as a catechist and was involved in pastoral ministry until 1943.

She then worked from 1943-45 at a group home for Asian children in Los Angeles.

Sr. Marie Corinne received her first overseas mission assignment to Hong Kong in 1946.

For the next 36 years, she taught in the Primary and Secondary Sections of the Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

She also served as the school’s piano teacher from 1947-55 and taught music, religion and English in the Primary Section until 1967.

She was then appointed as principal of the Maryknoll Convent School Primary Section and served as supervisor of the Secondary Section from 1967-77.

While serving as supervisor of the Secondary Section, she also gave private English and piano lessons from 1977-83.

She returned in 1983 to Maryknoll, New York, where she worked in Congregational Service in the Research and Planning Office until 1985.

She went back to Hong Kong in 1986 to do pastoral work at St. Joseph parish. She also was engaged in religious education and served as a private English tutor until 1995.

In 1996, she returned to California to the Maryknoll Sisters retirement home in Monrovia, where she did volunteer work and English testing until 2003.

She fully retired at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, New York, in 2004.

A vespers service was held for her on Sept. 5, in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

Preceding her in death were two sisters, Cay and Bernice, and three brothers Louis (who was a Maryknoll Father), Joseph and John.