Sister Katherine E. Heffernan, BVM

Sister Katherine E. Heffernan, BVM, 101, died Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, at Mount Carmel Bluffs, 1160 Carmel Drive, Dubuque, Iowa.

Visitation, the Sharing of Memories, and Mass of Christian Burial were on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Burial was in the Mount Carmel cemetery.

Sister Katherine was born on April 14, 1923, in Omaha, Neb., to John and Julie (Anheuser) Heffernan. She entered the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in September 1958 and professed first vows in March 1959. She transferred vows to the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Jan. 20, 1973.

Sister Katherine ministered in the Chicago area as the director of social services at Fox River and London Memorial Hospitals and as director of clinical services at Barclay Hospital. She served as a district social worker, clinical social worker, and special education care manager for the Chicago Board of Education.

“’Thus says the LORD . . . Do not fear, for I have redeemed you . . . I have called you by name: you are mine. . . You are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you.’ (Isaiah 43: 1, 4). With God as her foundation, Katie was fearless and resilient. The richness of how she lived life was a foretaste of the joy she now knows. Surely her heavenly homecoming was the party of a lifetime and, knowing Katie, she quite possibly cajoled everyone in heaven into line dancing.” (Eulogy, Mary Frances Clarke Chapel, Feb. 11, 2025)

She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister Julie McGoogan. She is survived by two nieces, a nephew, and the Sisters of Charity, BVM, with whom she shared life for 52 years.