Bernadette Stark

Our beloved Sister Bernadette (M. Bernarde) Stark, 76, died at her home in Oakdale, Minnesota, at 9:10 p.m. on Wednesday, September 22, 2010. She had lived with a cancer diagnosis since July 2009, experiencing several hospital stays and some periods of remission following treatment. She had entered Hospice and had come home for a final time the day previous to her death. Her sister, Pat Doolan, and Sister Judy Bakula and were with her at the time of her death.

The funeral Mass for Sister Bernadette, with Father Bernard Steiner as presider, will be on Monday, September 27, at 10:30 a.m., in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato, followed by cremation, with burial in our cemetery at a later date. Her vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 26. A memorial Mass will also be held on Tuesday, September 28, at Transfiguration Parish, Oakdale at 6:30 p.m. Loving sympathy to her sisters Pat Doolan, Mary Jo Stark and Michelle Stickney and her brother Francis, her nieces and nephews and their families, her former students and colleagues, her many great friends and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Francis and Irene (Walsh) Stark, and her niece Maggi.

Sister Bernadette, the second of five children and the oldest girl, was born April 17, 1934, in St. Paul. She was baptized Bernadette Mary at Guardian Angels Church in Lake Elmo. She wrote about her name choice, and that of her three sisters, "Mother dedicated her four daughters to Our Lady. She also saw to it that each had Mary's name."

Bernadette attended St. John's School in St. Paul for grades 1-4, with the Sisters of St. Joseph as her teachers. She met School Sisters of Notre Dame in this way: "The summer of my second grade, Mother decided she would like some music around the house, so my brother Fran and I started piano lessons at Sacred Heart School. Our teachers were Sister M. Davida and a Candidate, now known as Sister Mary Mark [Sister Mary Tacheny