Franciscan Sr. Mary Evelyn Lamb OSF, Aud native, observes platinum jubilee

Franciscan Sister Mary Evelyn Lamb, 99, a native of Aud in Osage County, is observing the 70th anniversary of her first profession of vows with the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis.

Sr. Mary Evelyn was born on Dec. 27, 1922, the daughter of J. Earl and Hada (Mantle) Lamb.

She is a 1935 graduate of Aud Public School and a 1946 graduate of Chamois High School.

She entered the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in Springfield, Illinois, on Sept. 8, 1949, and professed first vows on June 13, 1952.

“Early in my life, I remember that my father was very religious and really taught us to pray,” Sr. Mary Evelyn said.

“He also taught us to depend on God and to attend daily Mass whenever possible,” she added.

Her mother taught the children catechism from a “big, brown catechism book our pastor had gotten for her,” she said.

“Daddy would read us bedtime stories from the Lives of the Saints,” she recalled, “and every night before we went to bed, we knelt in the dining room and prayed the Rosary led by Daddy.”

In 1956, she graduated from Quincy University with a Bachelor of Science degree.

She graduated from St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing in Springfield, Illinois, in 1958, and in 1975 from Sangamon State University in Springfield with a Bachelor of Arts degree in nursing.

She has carried out many assignments with the Hospital Sisters, including at:

• St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois;
• St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin;
• St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, Illinois;
• St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; and
• St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield, Illinois.

She also worked for the Springfield, Illinois & Sangamon County Community Action; the Alverna Home Nursing Center in Chicago; and Interfaith Caregivers Inc. in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis is an international congregation of Franciscan Sisters founded in Germany in 1844.

Provinces include Germany, Poland, USA, Japan and India.

The American Province, based in Springfield, Illinois, was founded in 1875 when Sisters from Germany arrived and began a healthcare ministry.

The Province is the Founding Institute of Hospital Sisters Ministries, which sponsors 15 hospitals and an integrated physician network across Illinois and Wisconsin through Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS).

Mr. Blasco is director of communications and Provincial archivist for the USA Province of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis (hospitalsisters.org).