Sister Mary Ann Hilgeman, CSJ
March 23, 1934 - September 28, 2023
(S. Albert Marie)
A quiet but inviting person with a loving, inviting presence.
Herman and Marie (Molumby) Hilgeman of St. Louis welcomed their third child, Mary Ann, on March 23, 1934. “My parents were very loving and very prayerful ... [which] I think ... influenced the life that I lead right now.” (Three of her brothers, became priests, the fourth, married.) In the upper elementary grades at St. Mary Magdalen School, she took piano and organ lessons. After attending St. Joseph's Academy on the Fontbonne University campus, she received a scholarship to Fontbonne where she continued studying the organ. After her first year there, she entered the community. She received the habit and the name Sister Albert Marie (1953). “I didn’t enjoy the way our life was so structured, but I figured that was the way it was ...” Although she continued taking organ lessons in the novitiate, Sister Mary Ann also enjoyed math. In 1966, she earned a bachelor's degree in math at Fontbonne University (magna cum laude), and a master’s degree in math from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. in 1971.
After teaching primary grades at Immaculate Conception in St. Joseph, Missouri (1955), she moved to junior high at St. Edward in St. Louis
(1960) and then continued in junior high at St. Joseph in West De Pere, Wisconsin (1961). In 1966, S. Mary Ann taught at Little Flower High School in Chicago, followed by Valle High in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (1967), and then St. Joseph's Academy in St. Louis (1981). In 1983, her position changed to part-time teaching and part-time family care, eventually transitioning to full-time family care for her mom. In 1986, she returned to Valle High as an assistant principal until 1991. “I really loved it, loved the people, loved the community, loved everything about Ste. Genevieve,” said S. Mary Ann. Sister Pat Gloriod shares, “I never heard her say an unkind word about anybody. ... She made her little corner of the world a better place.” Sister Helen Alder described her as “a lovely person to live with — kind and cheerful and fun.”
For two years, she was a staff member at the Carondelet Center for Spirituality in St. Louis, which closed in 1993. After a year in transition, S. Mary Ann took some refresher courses in pastoral music and liturgy, while also substituting as an organist in various parishes. Beginning in 1996, she ministered in two positions, one as liturgical accompanist at Fontbonne College (now University) until 1999 and the other as director of music at St. Bernadette Parish in St. Louis, until retiring in 2006.
"What I particularly remember about her is her joy, her laughter, her simplicity, her brilliance and her musical talent,” says Sister Pat Murphy. Sue Narrow, the former St. Louis province print shop coordinator, shares, “I considered her a friend and a sweet lady."
S. Mary Ann moved from Carondelet to Nazareth Living Center in 2016. Associate Gerry Rauch, a massage therapist, recalls:
I … always delighted in the overflow of music that greeted me [in Mary Ann’s room at Nazareth]. ... She loved talking music and loved the music I’d bring her for the massage. She has been a joy to know.
By Sister Helen Oates