Sister Sturges: Counselor, spiritual director

Religious of the Sacred Heart Sister Anne Sturges, a former chaplain and spiritual director in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, died Dec. 30, 2016, in Albany, New York. She was 84 and had served for 62 years in religious life.

A native of New York City, Sister Sturges was the daughter of Ralph Alonzo Sturges and Elizabeth Corby Sturges. After graduating from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, with a degree in history, she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in Albany, New York, in 1954. She made her first vows on Feb. 12, 1957, and her final profession on July 21, 1962, in Rome, Italy.

She served as an English teacher and as a campus minister and student adviser. She worked as a pastoral minister at Fifth Avenue City Center and the Church of St. Michael in Coop City, The Bronx, New York; as staff chaplain at Odyssey Health Care in New Orleans; as a spiritual director at Sophie Barat House in New Orleans; and as a hospice chaplain at Serenity Hospice Services in New Orleans.

She also served on the board of trustees at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans from 2011-14. She left New Orleans in 2016 and moved to the Avila retirement community in Albany.

Sister Sturges is survived by her brother, Ralph A. Sturges III, of Old Lyme, Connecticut; by her sister, Sarah Bancroft of Old Brookville, New York, and by nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass was celebrated on Jan. 10 at 1:30 p.m. in the Teresian House Chapel in Albany. Burial was at the Kenwood Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63108.