Mary Jane Heynen

Sister Mary Jane Heynen (formerly known as Sister Angelynn) School Sister of Notre Dame, died Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at Good Counsel Convent, Mankato, Minnesota, at age 69.

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, October 20, at 3:00 p.m. in Good Counsel Chapel, with Fr. Ted Hottinger, SJ, as celebrant. Visitation will be from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Good Counsel, with Vespers in the chapel at 7:00 p.m. Visitation is also one hour prior to the funeral on Friday. Mankato Mortuary is in charge.

Sister Mary Jane (Mary Jane Heynen) was born in Mankato, Minnesota, April 24, 1937, to Henry and Angeline (Muellerleile) Heynen. A graduate of SS. Peter & Paul School and Good Counsel Academy, Mankato, she entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato in 1955 and took First Vows in 1957. She studied at Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, earning a B.S. in Education and Biology, and she earned an M.A. in Administration from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

With the exception of one year in Grenville, SD, Sister Mary Janes years of ministry were all spent in Minnesota, first as teacher of intermediate grades and junior high in Shakopee and Worthington, and as principal in Wayzata, then in pastoral ministry at Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Ulm and Assumption, Richfield. For eight years she served as Pre-Retirement and Retirement Director for the Mankato Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Her last years of ministry were at St. Marys Home in St. Paul as Director of Pastoral Care.

Sister Mary Jane is survived by nephews, Mark Erickson and Brian Erickson, and Brians wife Enid and their children, Emma and Seth, by grandnephew Nathan Erickson and Nathans mother Kay, by cousins in Holland and other relatives, and by a friend, Nancy Sipe. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Bonita Bonnie Erickson, brother-in-law, Gene Erickson, and nephew, Michael Erickson.