Sister Mary Ann Klein (Sister Mary James), 88, died Oct. 4, in the Catholic Care Center in Wichita. Born Dec. 4, 1924, in Fowler, Sister Mary Ann was the daughter of Jacob and Anna Hoffman Klein. She entered the Dominican Sisters in Great Bend on March 17, 1940, and pronounced her first vows Aug. 13, 1943. She celebrated 70 years of religious profession earlier this year. Sister Mary Ann began her ministerial life as a teacher in parochial elementary schools in Odin, Willowdale, La Crosse, and Clonmel. In 1951 she began her studies in nursing and ministered in St. Rose Hospital in Great Bend and St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City. She served as a missionary in health ministry in the Sokoto Prefecture in Nigeria in the 1960s. After two years of preparation for her ministry of teaching nurses, she taught in the Dominican School of Nursing and the Associate Nursing Program Barton County Community College, both in Great Bend. She was also the clinical supervisor and a nursing instructor in the Beloit AVTS. After 1983 she served in the convent infirmary in Great Bend for almost a decade. After retiring from nursing she ministered to the elderly, homebound, and those in hospitals in Sacred Heart Parish in Larned. Her last ministry was as the archivist for the Dominican Sisters in Great Bend.
Sister Mary Ann Klein is survived by her Dominican Sisters of Peace religious community; and one sister, Jean Pfeiffer of Dodge City.
The cremains of Sister Mary Ann will be brought to the hospitality area of the Dominican Chapel of the Plains, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11. The Liturgy of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, with the Rev. Anselm Eke MSP as presider. A wake service will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 11. Inurnment will be in the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery. Both the wake and the funeral will be held at the convent. Memorials in honor of Sister Mary Ann Klein may be sent to: Dominican Sisters of Peace, Office of Mission Advancement, 2320 Airport Dr., Columbus OH  43219-2098 or submitted securely online at oppeace.org. The register book will be available to visitors at the convent, from 4 p.m. until the time of the wake at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 11, and before the funeral at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Condolences may be sent and notice viewed at www.bryantfh.net.

Funeral arrangements provided by
Bryant Funeral Home*    
1425 Patton Road    
Great Bend, Ks. 67530
Great Bend (Kan) Tribune, Oct. 6, 2013