Sister Elaine Margaret Besand, CSJ

Loving, welcoming, kind, patient

On June 27, 1941, Valle and Thelma (Bohnert) Besand of Festus, Missouri, welcomed their first child, a daughter whom they named Mildred Marie. Elaine, their second daughter, was born about five years later. After Mildred completed her elementary education in Festus, her parents decided to send her as a boarder to Ursuline Academy in the St. Louis area.

Following graduation, Mildred stayed in St. Louis, living in Cathedral Parish where the Sisters of St. Joseph staffed the grade school. Across the street from the Cathedral was Rosati-Kain High School where her cousin, Gladys Besand [former member Sister Anne Vincent], graduated the year before and entered the Sisters of St. Joseph. So when she spoke with her spiritual director about a religious vocation and he suggested the Sisters of St. Joseph, they were not entirely unfamiliar to her.

In 1962, Mildred entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She was received into the novitiate in 1963, receiving the name Sister Elaine Margaret. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fontbonne College in 1967.

Her first assignment was to St. Joseph Community Hospital in Hancock, Michigan, as a clerical worker (1967). In 1968, S. Elaine Margaret was assigned to what was then Avila College, later Avila University, in Kansas City, Missouri. She became a campus bookstore assistant. S. Elaine found it enjoyable to interact one-on-one with both students and faculty, a situation, which due to her hearing difficulty,turned out to be an excellent match. Of course, her ready smile also invited conversation. She continued to work in the bookstore until she retired in Kansas City in 2006.

Sister Mary McGlone knew S. Elaine while she worked at the Avila bookstore and recalls:

She was the power behind the scenes—quiet, but efficient and friendly in a unique way with so many of the folks who would come in ... I think that Elaine was shy, and that, combined with some hearing loss, put some people off thinking that she was diffident—but she was not.

For the next nine years, S. Elaine spent her time volunteering and doing sewing and alterations. This was something that many said she both excelled at and thoroughly enjoyed. Another activity she enjoyed was going out to eat with friends, possibly because talking to just one or two others was much more manageable for someone with a hearing difficulty.

“She was always generously available for alterations and hemming and patching, and she did beautiful work," says S. Rosemary Flanigan. "I am sure that many an Avila student remembers her many kindnesses from their encounters in the Avila bookstore. She was a gracious woman.”

In 2015, S. Elaine moved to Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis, where she carried out her ministry of prayer and presence, and as long as her health allowed, continued sewing.

By Sister Helen Oates