Sister Marie was longtime sacristan at Boys Town

School Sister of St. Francis Sister Marie Grosse-Rhode, a native of Dodge and longtime sacristan at Boys Town’s Immaculate Conception Chapel in Omaha, died Sept. 24 in Milwaukee. She was 95.

A funeral Mass was held Oct. 10 at New Cassel Retirement Center in Omaha, where she lived for a number of years before moving to Wisconsin. Interment was in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Olean.

Growing up, Sister Marie attended the former Sacred Heart School in Olean before moving to Milwaukee after eighth grade.

She entered St. Joseph Convent in Milwaukee in 1936, was received into the order in 1938, professed first vows in 1940 and final vows in 1946.

Sister Marie taught for 42 years, including at schools in Illinois and Wisconsin, before moving back to Nebraska and teaching at Mary Our Queen School in Omaha from 1971 to 1980 and Archbishop Bergan Catholic School in Fremont from 1980 to 1982. In 1986, she began a 20-year ministry as sacristan at the Boys Town chapel.

Sister Marie, who preferred spelling the family name Grosse-Rhode, retired to New Cassel in 2006, but continued to serve as a volunteer there. She moved to the Sacred Heart Convent in Milwaukee two years ago and was involved in prayer ministry.

Preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Anna (Peitzmeier) Grosserhode, a brother, Norbert, and sisters Ethel, Delia and Jean, Sister Marie is survived by two brothers and sisters-in-law, Cyril "Cy" and Alda, and Elmer and Linda Grosserhode, all of Dodge.