This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hgDBAIB/1642.1 Message Board Post: Reprinted with permission of the Albuquerque Journal Thursday, November 27, 2003 Sister Marie Rodgers Worked To Comfort the Sick By Paul Logan Journal Staff Writer Sister Marie "Bobbie" Rodgers comforted untold hundreds of people while a chaplain at St. Joseph Medical Center in Albuquerque. An Albuquerque native, Sister Rodgers also taught students and held retreats during her 60 years with the Sisters of Charity. The Catholic nun died of cancer Nov. 2 at the mother house in Cincinnati. Sister Rodgers would have celebrated her 80th birthday Wednesday. A memorial service was held Nov. 8 in Cincinnati. A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at the Newman Center, 1815 Los Lomas Road NE, followed by a reception. Three priests will celebrate the service— the Rev. Bob Keller, the Rev. Chris O'Bryan and the Rev. Paul Meaden, said her sister, Jane Mechenbier of Albuquerque. "That was her specialty— pastoral care," Mechenbier said. "She loved it. She loved talking to people." Sister Rodgers worked at St. Joe's, now called Albuquerque Regional Medical Center, from 1986 to 1994. "She went out of her way to be very, very nice and helpful," said Dr. Jacqueline "Jackie" McDonald, who became friends with Sister Rodgers in 1991 during the two weeks before McDonald's mother died. "She was very consoling, very thoughtful and very kind," the retired physician said. She described the nun as a religious person with a practical side who was straightforward and sincere. McDonald said that after she told a friend at church that Sister Rodgers had died, the person also recalled how the nun was known for her kindness toward everyone. Sister Rodgers was born in 1923— the sixth oldest of Edward and Teresa Beaven Rodgers' 13 children. Two children died as infants. Her father worked for the railroad and her mother reared the children. An older sibling, Roberta Marie, was the first to join the Sisters of Charity. She would write home that the religious life was "like a little piece of heaven" and how "she just loved" being a nun, Mechenbier said. The exuberant letters "rubbed off" on the younger sister, Mechenbier said, and Sister Rodgers followed her into the convent. Sister Roberta Marie died Nov. 8, 2002. Sister Rodgers taught in elementary schools at Denver, Pueblo and Trinidad, Colo., as well as in Cincinnati and Detroit. She also served as principal at St. Mary's Elementary School in Port Huron, Mich., from 1968-71. She moved into retreat and chaplaincy work in the 1970s, working in Ohio, California, Colorado and New Mexico. "Sister Marie was able to touch people in ways that allowed them to show their fears and their hopes about impending illnesses," said Sister Monica Ann Lucas, who directed the St. Joe's pastoral care and chaplaincy program. Sister Rodgers' first bout with cancer was in 1994. After six years in remission, the disease returned about three years ago, her sister said. "She loved to go to the flea market, get stuff, fix it up and give them away," Mechenbier said. She said Sister Rodgers never mentioned if she ever received any honors or awards because she wasn't the type to tell anyone. "All her awards would be what people say now of her," Mechenbier said. Siblings who preceded her in death were Edward Rodgers Jr., Katherine Jones, Beaven Rodgers, John Rodgers and Sister Roberta Marie. Sibling survivors are Dola Clark of Colorado Springs, Colo., Alfred Rodgers of Paonia, Colo., and Rita Kerr and Bob Rodgers, both of Albuquerque. Memorial donations may be made to the Sisters of Charity Retirement Fund Cincinnati, 5900 Delhi Road, Mount St. Joseph, Ohio 45051, attention: Sister Cookie.