Sr. Joan Mary Levesque

Sister Joan Mary died January 8, 2012, at St. Ann Nursing Home in Oklahoma City. She was born August 17, 1940, to Alfred and Pearl Kyle Levesque in Laconia, New Hampshire. In 1962, she turned her back on the ski slopes and Lake Winnepesaukee, heading west to enter the convent of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese in Oklahoma. Her parents, of course, wondered why she chose to go so far away from home. God's call is often full of mystery. Sister Joan Mary did not turn back. She made her first vows June 10, 1964. Then she completed her degree in Theology/Education at Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1968. As a teacher and parish minister her preparation was never ending. In 1990 she finished a degree in Pastoral Ministry from Kansas Newman University and in 2001, a graduate certificate in Carmelite Studies from Washington Theological Union. Assignments took her to the classroom in St. Charles Borromeo School, to Religious Education Programs at Sacred Heart and St. James parishes and Villa Teresa in Oklahoma City, to pastoral ministry in Frederick, Okeene, Seiling, Watonga, Krebs and McAlester and to a foreign mission in Guatemala. To teach God's word in rural areas of Oklahoma was her privilege and passion. She often expressed herself in poetry to observe special occasions in the lives of her Sister companions. She admired our Carmelite saints and our founder, Father Edward Soler, O.C.D. She studied their lives and work so she could share with others what she had learned. Sister Joan Mary was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her sister Linda (and husband Kenneth) Johnson of Wyoming, nephews Stephen and Michael and niece Wendy. Wake service will be at 7:00 P.M. at Villa Teresa Convent, 1300 Classen Drive, Wednesday evening, January 11. Mass of Christian Burial at 11 :00 A.M. in the chapel of St. Ann Nursing Home, Thursday, January 12