Obituary

Sister Eustella (Mary) Olbertz, FSPA

Sister Eustella (Mary).Olbertz, age 101, died September 7, 1982, at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse, Wisconsin .. She'was a member of the Health Care Province.

Mary was born to Peter and Anna Fuszhoeler Olbertz, January 4, 1881, Mt. Carmel, Iowa. She and a twin sister, Katherine, were the youngest in a family of seven children. One child died in infancy.

Mary's parents had emigrated from Cologne, Germany and settled for a brief time near Mendota, Illinois, before moving by covered wagon to Ogden, Boone County, Iowa. Ogden was only a railroad station in midwest, rolling prairie lands. Missionary priests traveled long distances to visit the Catholics and administer the sacraments of matrimony and baptism. To be able to participate in Sunday Mass only rarely was a great trial for Peter and Mary Olbertz who had been reared in Catholic Cologne. Moreover, there were few Catholics in this sparsely settled area and, therefore, little probability that a Catholic parish would be established in the foreseeable future. When news reached the Olbertz family that a Catholic settlement was forming at Mt. Carmel, the father lost no time in bringing his family to Carroll County. He purchased a farm five miles from Mt. Carmel, the first settlement in Carroll County to have a resident priest. The Olbertz children now had the opportunity to attend a Catholic School but they found the five-mile walk too much, especially in the winter months. The father, therefore, tutored them at home for two years. The problem of distance was solved when the father bought a farm two miles from church and school.

Mary's formal education ended when she completed the fourth grade. After that, she found herself well occupied in working with her father, brother and sisters on the farm.

When Mary was seven, her oldest sister Anna left home to become Sister Julia, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. Mary was saddened by the departure of her sister who had helped care for the twins from the time they were infants. The hurt Mary experienced as a result of Anna's departure and the strong attraction for her twin sister may have subconsciously kept Mary from entertaining any thought of becoming a religious during her early adolescence. When she was seventeen, however, the idea of becoming a Sister came to her suddenly and persisted. Her parents offered no objection and Mary entered St. Rose Convent on September 8, 1898. After a year of probation, she was admitted to the novitiate on May 29, 1900, receiving the name, Sister Eustella. She made her first profession of vows on July 2, 1902; her final vows, July 17, 1910.

Sister Eustella served the Church and her religious community for sixty-five years. Forty-five of these years, were devoted to the Indian children at St. Mary's School, Odanah, Wisconsin, on the Chippewa Indian Reservation. She loved the children and fostered them with the care and attention of a mother. The children reciprocated her affection and many kept in touch with her after they left the school. Some learning of her retirement and recent illness visited her, others telephoned, or sent messages.

Sister Eustella spent nineteen years at St. Francis Hospital. In an article in St. Francis News, (7/25/62), the writer said of her, "Only the recording angel knows how many stitches she has sewn mending hospital linens .... This would be even more true if one tried to count all the fervent prayers she has said not only while at St. Francis but in the more than 80 years of her life time." And today we can say, during the 101 years of her life.

Sister Eustella was a woman of faith. She loved God and did not hesitate to express that love vocally and, at times, feel free to chide Him for not calling her to Himself. "Lord," she would say, "You died at the age thirty-three. I am more than three times your age. Please come to get me." Whenever a Sister died at the Villa, she would say, "He called her, why not me?"

Although Sister Eustella was confined to her bed much of the time during the past month, she was at Mass each morning until very recently. Death came to her quietly at 4:15 a.m., September 7, 1982. She was in the 8lst year of her religious profession.

All of Sister Eustella's sisters and brothers preceded her in death. Sister Julia Olbertz, FSPA, age 76, died at Villa St. Joseph, May 17, 1960. Sister Eustella is mourned by her religious community, by her many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and nephews, by many Indian men and women whom she mothered, clothed, and instructed as children at St. Mary's Indian School.

The Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, September 9. Father Richard Wisnewski will be the celebrant. A prayer service will be held Wednesday, 7:15 p.m.

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
St. Rose Convent * 912 Market St. * La Crosse, WI 54601 * (608)782-5610