Jubilarian 2020 - Sister Mary Jacobs

Sister Mary Jacobs was born as Mary Louise in Atchison, Kansas. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1959 and was received into the novitiate in 1960 as Sister Joseph Mary. She earned a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Fontbonne College in 1964.

Throughout all of her active ministry work, Sister Mary served 39 years in health care. She began as a nurse supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri (1964-66), and then at St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood, Missouri until (1966-1970).

From 1970-1976, Sister Mary served as a staff nurse at Cardinal Ritter Institute in St. Louis; Baptist Memorial Hospital in San Antonio, Texas; and Doctors Hospital Cullman in Cullman, Alabama. She remained in Cullman until 1979 and worked as a public health nurse at the Health Department for Cullman County.

Sister Mary moved a state over to Atlanta, Georgia, where she would remain for the next 14 years. She served as the associate director of nursing at FNTNVW Convalescent Center (1979-80), as the program coordinator/director for Catholic Social Services (1980-86), where she established the first Catholic adoption services.

She then moved south to Florida, serving in the state for the following 21 years. In Venice, Sister Mary worked for five months from 1993 to 1994 as a registered nurse at both the Venice Nursing Pavilion North and Venice Hospital Home Health. In Sarasota, she served as a case manager at Able-Care (1994-96), a registered nurse at Visiting Nurse Association of Southwest Florida Inc. (1996-2001), and a home health care staff nurse for Youthful Aging Home Health (2002-2009). Sister Mary retired in Venice in 2009 and volunteered in the area for eight years.

In 2017, she moved to St. Louis and volunteered. Since 2019, Sister Mary has resided at Nazareth Living Center carrying out her mission of prayer and presence.