Sr. Dolores Marie Siebenmorgen dies

Sister Dolores Marie Siebenmorgen, a native of Conway, died Jan. 17. She was 95.

The sixth of 12 children was born to Apollonia Wewers and Herman Siebenmorgen Dec. 27, 1929, in Conway.  She was baptized at St. Joseph Church Dec. 29, 1929, and named Elizabeth Magdalene.  She grew up on a small family farm with two brothers and nine sisters.  One of her sisters was our recently deceased Sister Herman Marie, SSND.  Her oldest sister chose to become a Benedictine sister, Sister Mary Brendan.  Her parents’ deep faith and life were role models for the family.

Elizabeth attended St. Joseph grade school and high school in Conway, which were staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame.  Realizing a call to religious life, she followed her older sister, Sister Herman Marie, and entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame.  On August 31, 1950, she entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis.  She was received into the novitiate on July 29, 1952, and given the name Dolores Marie.  She professed first vows on July 31, 1953, and final vows on July 31, 1959.

Sister Dolores Marie received a bachelor’s degree in English from San Diego College for Women in San Diego, California, in 1960 and a master’s degree in education from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1968.

Sister Dolores Marie ministered in Catholic education for 25 years.  She was an elementary teacher at Blessed Sacrament, Belleville, Illinois; Holy Family, San Diego, California; Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Houston, Texas and St. Peter, Fort Worth, Texas.   She was a principal at St. Alphonsus, McComb, Mississippi, St. Patrick, Dallas, Texas and Annunciation, Bogalusa, Louisiana. 

In 1977, she became the administrator of the SSND motherhouse in Irving, Texas.  After a five-year term and a sabbatical, Sister Dolores Marie changed careers and began serving in pastoral ministry.  She was the first religious sister to be the pastoral associate at St. Mary Parish in Gainesville, Texas.  In addition to her responsibilities in the parish, she was also involved in the Cooke County Ministerial Alliance.  One of their projects was the development of Volunteers in Service to Others (VISTO), a county-wide network providing for the emergency needs in the community.

In 1992, she became the pastoral associate at Holy Family Parish in Abilene, Texas.  These seven years were followed by a sabbatical and then three years as pastoral associate at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Victoria, Texas.  In 2003, she began serving as the hospitality coordinator at the SSND formation house in San Antonio, Texas. Twenty years later, she moved to St. Anthony’s Gardens in Covington, Louisiana.  In January 2025, due to health issues, she was transferred to Trintiy Trace Community Center in Covington.  She died peacefully in the early morning of Jan. 17.

A Sharing of Memories will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 24 with a Memorial Mass at 10:30 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 501 Holy Trinity Drive, Covington, La..  Father Rodney Bourg will officiate.  Inurnment will follow at a later date at St. Mary of the Pines Cemetery in Chatawa, Miss.

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