Sister Geraldine "Gerrie" Grabow

(S. Adrienne Marie)

Dedicated, hardworking, loved teaching

When Harold and Adren (Nevans) Grabow of Denver, Colorado, welcomed daughter Geraldine Marie on March 23, 1941, her 17-month-old sister, Chris, was already on the scene. The girls’ mother was a registered nurse from an Irish Catholic family of seven children. Two of the younger boys became priests. Their dad was from a smaller family and a convert to Catholicism. He earned his living as a tax accountant. Gerrie’s education began at St. Francis de Sales Grade School and continued on through St. Francis de Sales High School.

Growing up, Gerrie remembers feeling closer to her mother than to her dad or sister. Gerrie was a freshman in high school when her mother died. Following her mother’s death, Gerrie and Chris kept house for their dad. That’s when Gerrie really began to get to know her father and recognize the sacrifices he made while raising his girls. Chris married right after high school, and Gerrie continued to keep house for her dad until she entered. Over time, the two girls, upon gaining a little more maturity, became very close. Gerrie was also very close with her uncle, Father Robert Nevans, an archdiocesan priest. She considered him the “greatest single influence” in her life.

Another influential person in her life was her was mother’s aunt, Sister Anne Adelaide Nevans, CSJ. Gerrie wanted to be a Sister of St. Joseph from a small child. Though she dated throughout high school, the call to religious life was persistent. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on September 15, 1959, and received the habit and her religious name of Sister Adrienne Marie on March 19, 1960.

While living on the Fontbonne College campus for two years at St. Joseph Juniorate, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English. Her first ministry assignment was to Redemptorist High in Kansas City, Missouri (1964). Her ministry in secondary education continued at Pius X High in Atlanta, Georgia (1968), and St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Louis (1969).

Sister Gerrie taught film study at St. Thomas Aquinas High School during the early 1970s … I found her to be a very good teacher. She inspired me to look more carefully at the themes and impact of movies.

-Associate Donna Horsford

In 1975, Sister Gerrie moved to the Academy of Our Lady in Peoria, Illinois. Two years later, she found herself back in St. Louis at St. Cecilia Grade School until 1979. After several months in transition, she taught once again at St. Thomas Aquinas High in 1980. Then, in 1984, she returned to Kansas City to teach at St. Teresa Academy.

Sister Helen Alder shares, “When she put her mind to doing something … she threw herself into it whole heartedly and accomplished the task.”

After another brief transition, S. Gerrie remained in the Kansas City area. She ministered at Cornerstone Health Services in customer service (1998). Next, she worked with Parks and Recreation: Planning and Design Services as well as a library technician (2001). Finally, she served in home care for the elderly with CSJ Care from 2002 to 2004. Sister Rosemary Flanigan, who taught Gerrie at St. Francis de Sales in Denver, was delighted to hear that “she had become an advocate for getting people to fill out their advance directives. I thought she had her own little mission territory right inside her apartment building.”

S. Gerrie spent her last four years in Kansas City volunteering until moving to Nazareth Living Center in 2008.

By Sister Helen Oates