Etheldreda Heard

S. Mary Etheldreda Heard, ASC, died Saturday, April 6, 2002, at the Adorers of the Blood of Christ Ruma Center in Red Bud, Ill. She was recovering from hip surgery.

She was born Dec. 11, 1900, in LaValle, Mo.

Etheldreda lived 83 of her 101 years as an Adorer. She made first vows July 16, 1918, and final profession July 31, 1924. She wrote that at birth she "hovered between life and death for six weeks." Life obviously improved after those precarious first weeks.

Daughter of Louis and Mary Lee Clark Heard, and baptized Mary, her siblings included eight brothers and sisters. In her autobiography written in 1993, S. Etheldreda remembered those early years in a "warm, closely knit family" who lived on a farm with a simple lifestyle. Her parents lived in Chaffee, Mo., and she attended school in Oran, Mo.

That same autobiography clearly indicates her time of arrival at Ruma as July 27, 1915, at 3:15 p.m. S. Etheldreda's love for precision and clarity would serve her well through her three degrees from St. Louis University: an A.B. in English in 1929, an M.A. in education in 1931 and a Ph.D. in educational administration in 1936.

She was one of the first women to attend St. Louis University, which became co-educational in 1925 in its school of education. S. Etheldreda, along with S. M. Robert Hodge and S. Leonida Zink, became the first full-time students from Ruma to attend the university. She holds the distinction of being the first U.S. Adorer to receive a Ph.D., something of which she was justifiably proud. Even before her own education was complete, S. Etheldreda opened Precious Blood Institute on Easter Tuesday 1923, where she taught until 1926.

Always the educator, S. Etheldreda taught in all three U.S. province centers. She was in Columbia from 1951-54, and in Greensburg, Pa., at Central Catholic High School from 1969-75. She taught at the then Sacred Heart College in Wichita from 1956-57. Other high schools to benefit from her ministry were St. Teresa Academy in East St. Louis, Ill., 1922-23 and 1936-51; Ss. Peter and Paul in Waterloo 1954-56; the public high school in Prairie du Rocher, Ill., 1957-59; St. Pius X in Festus, Mo., 1959-62; St. Edmund's in Fort Dodge, Iowa, 1962-63; Mater Dei High School in Breese, Ill., 1964-69; and Prep Seminary North in St. Louis 1975-76. She may hold the record as the only ASC to teach in all the high schools staffed by the then Ruma province.

Her years at St. Teresa Academy from 1936-51 are particularly noteworthy. As principal during those years and also as a teacher, she expanded the campus, encouraged operettas, developed a rigorous curriculum and laid the groundwork for the integration of the school in 1951. Her long, fruitful work at the academy continued even after she left through her activities with St. Teresa's alumnae association, especially those from the classes spanning the years 1936-51.

She devoted much of her retirement years from 1976 to corresponding with St. Teresa alumnae. She lived at De Mattias Hall in St. Louis from 1976-77 and moved to Ruma in 1977.

Always articulate in speaking and writing, S. Etheldreda wrote in her autobiography that her retirement years were her "vigil for eternity. If I had a thousand lives, I would choose education as my work, but without the mistakes I made under pressure and inexperience in this my life."

She and her blood sister, S. M. Innocence, ASC, who is now 98, were fondly known as "the twins." This bond found them together at the time of S. Etheldreda's death, and even beyond, since S. M. Innocence waited with the body for the arrival of the funeral director. S. M. Innocence said, "She was a good person, and I miss her very much."

In addition to S. M. Innocence, her only surviving sibling, S. Etheldreda is survived by a nephew, Edward Heard Jr. of San Clemente, Calif.; two nieces, Mrs. George (Rita) Ball of Paducah, Ky., and Mrs. Franklin (Juanita) McNeely of Cape Girardeau.

Because S. Lucretia Wallace, ASC, died on Monday, April 8, they shared a wake service and burial Mass. The wakes were at the Ruma Center on Tuesday, April 9, at 7 p.m.

The liturgy of Christian burial was celebrated Wednesday, April 10, at 10:30 a.m., with the Rev. Richard Weidert as presider and S. Barbara Jean Franklin, ASC, as eulogist. Burials followed in the community cemetery.

Memorials may be made to Sisters of Precious Blood, Provincial House, Red Bud, Ill., 62278.