UPDATED: Rest in peace, Sr. Esther Becker SSND, 88

To her, seeing a yellow butterfly signified that God was with us.”

Paula Wekenborg, director of the Vogelweid Learning Center at St. Peter School, Jefferson City

Sister Marie Esther Becker, 88, a Jefferson City native who taught for many years at St. Peter School in Jefferson City, died peacefully the morning of Feb. 27 at Anna House, The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, as sisters kept vigil with her.

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on March 14 at Theresa Center in St. Louis, with Vincentian Father Michael Joyce presiding.

Sr. Esther would have celebrated her 70th year as a religious sister this year.

She was born Nov. 12, 1936, in Jefferson City, the fourth child of Vincent and Esther (Prenger) Becker.

She was baptized on Nov. 22 of that year in St. Peter Church, Jefferson City, and named Mary Dolores.

Sr. Esther was a fun-loving, joyful and self-giving person. She wanted to help children and was an excellent teacher and mentor of other teachers.

She was a great storyteller and had many interesting stories to share. May she now rejoice as she is welcomed by her family who have preceded her in death and by her God whom she served so faithfully during her 70 years of religious life.

Her family would eventually grow to six children, including two older brothers, an older sister, a younger brother and a younger half-brother.

Sr. Esther’s mother told her that when she was a baby, she took her to St. Peter Church, knelt down and prayed that Our Lady would protect her child.

The family worked hard, but there was also plenty of fun and laughter.

Mary entered kindergarten at St. Peter Grade School, staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND). During that year, her mother was hospitalized and began a two-year battle with cancer.

Her mother passed away when Mary was 7 years old.

Following that loss, Mary’s school work suffered and she grew to dislike school very much.

Beginning around the time of her First Holy Communion, Sr. Esther’s prayer life began developing in a way that eventually led her to accept the plans God had had for her all along.

She often rode a horse from home to a nearby stream to pray by a peaceful waterfall. She also would pray while sitting at the picnic table in her backyard.

“Deep in my heart, I knew I wanted to help kids,” she once recalled. “That’s what kept coming to me, to help the children who didn’t have parents.”

A woman was hired to help with the children and was very kind to them. Her mother’s younger sister, Alberta, came on weekends to help out.

Eventually, Vincent Becker fell in love with Alberta and married her when Mary was in the fourth grade. A son was born of this union. Mary’s aunt/step-mother expected much from the children, but also taught them many practical habits.

From her brothers, Mary acquired a love for sports. In her junior year, she played on the Jefferson City All Star Softball team.

She became interested in teaching younger children how to play ball. She also learned about the orphanage that the SSND congregation had in New Orleans. Having lost her mother at an early age, she had great empathy for orphans.

She experienced a desire to give her life to God and to help others. With the assistance of the sisters at St. Peter School, arrangements were made for Mary to enter the candidature after her junior year in high school.

The night before entrance, she played on the Jeff City Women’s Softball team for the championship in Columbia. She was the youngest member on the team and they won.

The next evening, on Aug. 26, 1953, she received the candidate’s bonnet at St. Peter Church, and from there went to Sancta Maria in Ripa, the SSND Motherhouse in St. Louis, the following morning.

After a week of training, Mary was sent to teach third grade at St. Gabriel School in St. Louis. With the mentoring and understanding of the other third-grade teacher and the principal, she received a good evaluation. She completed her senior year by taking classes on weekends at Sancta Maria in Ripa.

She was received into the novitiate on July 31, 1954, and given the name Marie Esther, in honor of her deceased mother.

She professed first vows on Aug. 1, 1955, and final vows on Aug. 1, 1961.

Sr. Esther realized long ago that the promises she made to God were not a one-shot deal.

“When you give your life to God, it’s like a married woman giving her life to her husband,” she once stated. “It has to be thought out and accepted often. You have to keep re-choosing it.”

Sr. Esther received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the former Notre Dame College, St. Louis in 1969.

She was hoping to work with orphans; however, she spent the next 57 years in classroom teaching.

“I really enjoy working with kids and helping to form their character,” she told The Catholic Missourian at the time of her golden jubilee in 2005. “I like that even more than the subject matter I teach.

“I also love dedicating my life to God,” she stated at that time. “That’s a call, a gift that God has given me. I love being His woman.”

Following profession, she was missioned to Holy Family School in Freeburg.

As the youngest sister there, she taught grades 1 and 2, did the daily sacristy work, taught the altar servers the Latin prayers, supervised the bus children and also helped with laundry, housework and other chores.

The older sisters encouraged Sr. Esther to proctor the lunch hour and recess at school, because she was the only one who knew the rules to the games the students played.

The boys in Freeburg at that time were great baseball players, but few knew how to play football. She helped them practice both.

“She could throw a heck of a spiral,” one former schoolyard wide receiver recently noted.

She remained at Holy Family for 10 years until 1965.

Her next assignment was at St. Joseph School in Cairo, Illinois. That community at that time was experiencing many racial tensions, and Sr. Marie Esther learned much about prejudice.

After seven years, she was missioned to Our Lady of Loretto School, St. Louis, for four years and then returned to St. Gabriel School for eight years.

From 1984-2012, she taught at St. Peter School in Jefferson City. During this time, she was able to help care for her parents before they died and was close to three brothers.

From 2009-12, she served as a remedial reading teacher at the Vogelweid Learning Center at St. Peter School, working with children with special needs.

“To her, seeing a yellow butterfly signified that God was with us,” said Paula Wekenborg, director of the Vogelweid Learning Center at St. Peter School. “She loved her time at St. Peter’s because it was her home parish, and she could see her parents, family and the people she knew for most of her life.”

Mrs. Wekenborg recently spoke to one of Sr. Esther’s former students and she commented that “Sr. E” was always the “fun” teacher with her witty sarcasm.

The former student “always enjoyed all of the stories Sister told about the times when she was a kid, how rough and tough her brothers were, and how they had fun back in the old days,” said Mrs. Wekenborg.

During her time at Vogelweid, Sr. Esther was always “kid-first.”

“She could relate to people no matter their age, from 5 to 75,” said Mrs. Wekenborg. “She had the widest smile that she shared often, usually after she had made a joke about herself and got you to laugh.”

Some of Sr. Esther’s closest co-workers and friends at St. Peter shared further recollections, including that she loved to be outdoors, loved to fish and dearly loved her time at the river.

“All the people we talked to Friday would ask us if we were a part of the river crew because Sr. Esther talked about it all the time,” said Mrs. Wekenborg.

In 2012, Sr. Esther moved to the Theresa Center in St. Louis and performed community service.

She retired to Veronica House, The Sarah Community, in Bridgeton in 2019.

As her health declined, she was transferred to Anna House in June 2023.

Sr. Esther brought great joy to all the people at the Sarah Community.

Fellow sisters were praying with her when she died.

A prayer service was held at The Sarah Community on March 13. A large crowd of fellow residents as well as attended.

Sr. Esther’s sister-in-law, Linda Becker, family members, classmates, friends from the Jefferson City area, School Sisters of Notre Dame and SSND associates attended her Funeral Mass.

Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.

Sr. Esther was preceded in death by her parents; her sister Katherine Herman; her brothers Bernard (Helen), Brother Marvin FSC of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Christian Brothers), Robert (Cecilia) and her half-brother John (Linda).

She is survived by relatives, friends, School Sisters of Notre Dame and SSND associates.