R.I.P., St. Anthony native Sr. Mary Evelyn Steinman FSM

St. Anthony native Sister Mary Evelyn Steinman, 99, of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, died on Nov. 4 at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton.

She had been a Franciscan Sister of Mary for 76 years.

Marie Hedwig Steinman was born Nov. 30, 1920, in St. Anthony, the third of nine children (five boys, four girls) born to Barthol and Clara (Ewers) Steinman.

On July 18, 1944, Marie and her cousin Martha Ewers (Sister Mary Rosanne) entered the congregation then known as the Sisters of St. Mary.

She received the name Sister Mary Evelyn, and she professed final vows Feb. 11, 1950.

Her two younger sisters later entered the SSM congregation as well — Sister Mary Loreda (baptized Veronica Magdalen) in 1946 and Sister Donna Marie (baptized Loretta Augusta) in 1951.

Sr. Mary Evelyn completed her high school studies at St. Mary of the Angels in St. Louis in 1952, also working in the convent bakery.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in dietetics in 1956. During that summer, she helped prepare the kitchen for the opening of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis in July; she completed her dietetic internship there in 1957.

From 1957 to 1959, she worked in clinical dietetics at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis, then as a dietitian at Firmin Desloge Hospital until 1963.

She returned to St. Mary’s as a therapeutic dietitian until 1965, then served in that capacity at Firmin Desloge until 1967.

From 1967 to 1973, she was a clinical dietitian at Cardinal Glennon, serving also as community director for the sisters there.

From 1973 to 1980, she served as a dietitian at Saint Louis University Hospital (formerly Firmin Desloge). She then returned to St. Mary’s Hospital as a clinical dietitian; she worked in dietetics in the SSM Rehab area from 1985 until 1994.

The Sisters of Mary and the Sisters of St. Francis of Nevada, Missouri, were reunited in 1986 to form the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.

From 1994 to 1998, she was a dietitian at St. Mary’s Ringling in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Returning to St. Louis in 1998, she took on the role of sacristan and extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at St. Mary of the Angels.

She moved to The Sarah Community in May 2010.

Sister Mary Evelyn found great fulfillment in serving as a sacristan, especially when preparing for holy days and the sisters’ wakes and funerals.

She enjoyed quilting, crocheting afghans, baking, painting and providing nutritional guidance.

Surviving are two sisters, Sister Mary Loreda Steinman, FSM; and Sister Donna Marie Steinman FSM, both of Bridgeton.

A Memorial Mass was to be offered in the chapel at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton on a future date.

A version of this article was published in the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the St. Louis archdiocese.