RICHMOND HEIGHT, Mo. — Sr. Cecilia Rose Boucher died Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at St. Mary of the Angels Convent after almost 60 years as a sister. She was 80. A funeral Mass was celebrated for her on Monday, March 16, at St. Mary of the Angels Convent, Richmond Heights, Mo. She was buried in Resurrection Cemetery.
Cecilia Rose Boucher was born on August 29, 1928, in Alton, Ill. On August 3, 1949, she entered the Sisters of St. Mary (which in 1987 reunited with the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville, Mo., to become the Franciscan Sisters of Mary). She received the name Sister Mary Clarence, and she professed her final vows on February 11, 1952. She assumed her baptismal name, Cecilia Rose, following Vatican II.
For many years she cared for the sisters’ laundry and linens, both at St. Mary of the Angels Convent in St. Louis and at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis. She also served as sacristan until her health failed. In Baraboo, Wis., she visited patients at Jefferson Meadows Care Center. At the motherhouse in St. Louis, she made and repaired rosaries and helped in the activities department. In her later years she devoted her time to a powerful ministry of prayer.