Sr. Evelyn Marie Peterman FSM, 88, served in J.C., Hannibal

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 11:28 adorn the wall of the chapel in Wema, Kenya, where Sister Evelyn Marie Peterman of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary witnessed a dear friend’s murder in 1989.

Those words will be proclaimed again at a Memorial Mass for Sr. Evelyn Marie on Monday, Dec. 4, in Bridgeton.

Sr. Evelyn Marie, 88, who served for many years in Jefferson City, died peacefully on Nov. 15 at The Sarah Community.

The Mass will be offered at 1:30 p.m. in the chapel at The Sarah Community, 12284 DePaul Drive, on the campus of SSM DePaul Health Center in Bridgeton.

Visitation will take place for about 45 minutes before the Mass.

Called early

Through 74 years in religious life, Sr. Evelyn Marie got to fulfill two special dreams — to become a nurse and to serve the poor in the missions.

She was born on Dec. 7, 1928, in St. Louis, one of seven children of Leo F. and Cecilia A. (Healy) Peterman.

Sr. Evelyn Marie got a job as a teenager washing dishes at St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights.

Seeing the Sisters of Mary who were nurses there, and talking to girls her age who wanted to become sisters, she started feeling the calling to be a sister-nurse.

She entered the congregation then known as the Sisters of St. Mary on July 29, 1943, at age 16.

Given the name Sr. Cecilia Marie, she professed final vows on Feb. 11, 1950.

Setting aside her dream of becoming a nurse, she practiced holy obedience, earning a bachelor’s in pharmacy degree in 1953 and a master’s in manufacturing pharmacy in 1956, both from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

She completed her associate’s in nursing through St. Mary’s College in O’Fallon in 1971 and earned her BSN through Saint Louis University in 1979.

“By the time I celebrated my silver jubilee, 25 years in the convent, I was a registered nurse,” she jubilantly recalled in 2009.

She became a nurse practitioner in 1981, also through Saint Louis University.

She earned a certificate in Biblical Spirituality through Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1991 and completed her residency for CPE certification through Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center (1995-96).

She received certification in spiritual direction in 2005.

The road to Wema

Sr. Evelyn Marie started out as a pharmacy aide at St. Mary’s Health Center (1946-50).

As a pharmacist, she taught pharmacology and pharmacy at St. Mary’s Infirmary and St. Mary’s Health Center (1953-56).

In 1956, she opened the pharmacy at the new Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, serving as chief pharmacist there until 1961.

She then set-up the pharmacy at St. Eugene Hospital in Dillon, South Carolina.

She was chief pharmacist at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kansas City and taught pharmacology at the school of nursing there (1962-69).

She was a nurse and supervisor at St. Eugene’s in Dillon, South Carolina (1971-73); ICU nurse and nursing supervisor at St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City (1973-78); and an ICU nurse at the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Hannibal (1981-84).

From 1978 to 1984, she directed the SSM Associates.

In 1984, while working in pediatrics at Cardinal Glennon, she learned Swahili so she could serve as a nurse at an FSM medical mission in Wema, Kenya (1984-89).

She said her greatest joy and satisfaction came from her years of ministry in Wema, “living with the poor and caring for their sick.”

“Our dispensary was a place to take care of the sick,” she recalled. “And they came from all over, walking. Sick, just like you and me. The same diseases, along with a few others because of the tropical climate. And what did they really need? Love! The same love, the same care that you and I need!”

A fellow nurse and trusted friend, Rich Fountain native Sister Agnes Reinkemeyer, was murdered during a robbery at the mission.

Traumatized by the tragedy, Sr. Evelyn Marie returned to St. Louis.

An order of priests now runs the Wema medical dispensary, which has been expanded and moved into a new building.

Sr. Evelyn Marie found new peace and comfort during a 2009 trip back to Wema.

“Half of my heart is still there,” she said after the trip. “When I went back this time, I felt whole. But it’s okay now, because I know I am where God wants me to finish my life — here and not there.

“Forgiveness is the healing medicine for mind and for body,” she asserted. “We can’t have grudges against people. Not that we don’t still have the wound — Jesus still has His wounds. But He forgives. And we have to forgive, too.”

“Continue courageously”

Back in the United States, Sr. Evelyn Marie worked as a nurse at Frances Warde Health Service in Rosman, North Carolina.

She was then a home health care and hospice nurse for Incarnate Word Hospital in St. Louis (1992-94) and for the Barnes-Jewish Visiting Nurse Association (1994-95).

She served as a staff chaplain for St. Mary’s and for Villa Marie Skilled Nursing in Jefferson City (1996-2007), then volunteered at both until July 2013.

She also ministered to residents of the Algoa and Jefferson City correctional centers and helped with retreats for Teens Encounter Christ, Residents Encounter Christ for prison residents, and Cursillo.

She served as spiritual helper for the Joyful Servants Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order in Jefferson City.

Again under holy obedience, she agreed to move to The Sarah Community in July 2013.

Earlier that year, the Zonta Club of Jefferson City honored her with a Woman of Achievement award.

She returned to Jefferson City several times to help celebrate milestones in the construction of the new St. Mary’s, which opened in 2014.

Glad to help

Sr. Evelyn Marie loved spending time with friends, enjoying nature, writing letters and cards to family and friends, crocheting and singing in choral groups.

“Throughout my ministries,” she said, “I have enjoyed whatever I was doing because the work involved being of assistance to others who were in need and I was able to help them.”

Preceding her in death were her parents; two brothers, Thomas and Leo Eugene Peterman; and two sisters, Passionist Sister Paul Marie Peterman and Helen T. Phippen.

Surviving is a brother, Joseph Peterman of Redwood Valley, California, and a sister, Frances Wood of Spring Hill, Kansas, as well as many other relatives and friends.

Sr. Evelyn Marie donated her body to the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Sandy Ashby, director of public relations for the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, contributed extensively to this article.