Jubilarian 2020 - Sister Mary Kay Liston

Sister Mary Kay Liston, baptized Mary Catherine, was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1959 and was received into the novitiate in 1960 as Sister Kathleen Robert. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Fontbonne College in 1964, and master’s degrees in English from St. Louis University in 1971 and in theology from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in 1975. She earned a doctorate in Ministry from Pacific School of Religion Berkeley in 1985.

In 1964, Sister Mary Kay started teaching at St. Anthony Grade School in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1967. In 1970, she went on to teach at St. Thomas Aquinas High Scholl in Florissant, Missouri, until 1973.

Upon completion of her master’s in 1975 at the Weston College Jesuit School of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts, she served as campus minister and instructor in theology at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. until 1982. After receiving her doctorate in 1985, she served as a pastoral assistant at St. Peter’s parish in Kansas City until 1987. She then served as pastoral associate and director of liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Kansas City until 1990.

For a little more than a year, she worked as a consultant with Innovest Group Ltd in Westwood, Kansas. Then, from 1992 to 1995, Sister Mary Kay served as the liturgist for Good Shepherd Church in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

From 1973 to 1995, she was also engaged in spiritual companioning and retreat work.

Sister Mary Kay then served at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Ponca City, Oklahoma, as the assistant administrator of mission development (1995-97), and then the vice-president of mission service (1997-2000). For the next two years, she served as the director of mission services for the Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis.

From 2002 to 2008, Sister Mary Kay served her CSJ community as a member of the St. Louis Province Leadership Team. After a year-long sabbatical, she was an adjunct faculty/visiting instructor at Avila University until 2010.

Since then, Sister Mary Kay has been working as the volunteer archivist/historian at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City.