Sister Jude Dietsch, OSF

Sister Jude Dietsch died Friday, February 26, 2016, at Clare House, in her 76th year of her religious life.

Frances, born in Waterloo on July 3, 1921, was the third youngest of 12 children. She described her home as a very happy and kind place where religion played a prominent part in their daily lives.

Frances attended St. Mary’s School from kindergarten through 12th grade.  She greatly enjoyed her high school Franciscan teachers, and felt that she was given many educational opportunities, from parts in their operettas to bringing home trophies for the girls’ basketball team, called “The Green Peppers.”

After graduation, she worked in a confectionery shop up until the day Frances entered Mount St. Francis, on August 25, 1939, and was received a year later with the name, Sister Mary Jude.  After profession in 1942, she began 50 years of teaching, which she described as being very happy years. Her teaching missions included: St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s Home in Dubuque, St. Francis de Sales in Ossian; St. Mary’s, Remsen; New Hampton; St. Mary’s, Keota; Sacred Heart, Pocahontas; St. Anthony’s Home, Sioux City; St. John’s, Bancroft and Melrose Park, Illinois.

In her autobiography she wrote, “Know what? A lifetime isn’t sufficient time to thank the Lord properly for all the blessings and advantages offered me in life…I’m grateful!”

Sister Jude retired to Mount St. Francis in 1971, and moved to Clare House in 2014. During the next years she spent many days with one of her sisters until her death.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters Irene (Cletus) Thome; Ruth (Joe) Trey; Lucille (Harry Frost); Thelma Dietsch; her brothers Robert (Cleo) Dietsch; Leonard (Kathryn) Dietsch; Roy, Floyd, George and Al and her brother-in-law Roland Witt.

She is survived by her sister Leona Witt; nieces and nephews and her Franciscan Sisters with whom she spent 76 years.