Sister Joan Hageman

Monday, February 28, 2022 3:42 pm

Sister Joan Hageman, Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, age 82, died on Feb. 20. 2022 at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse, Wis.

She was in the sixty-third year of her religious profession. Born on June 20, 1939, in Festina, Iowa, Joan Marie was the youngest of Nicholas and Rosalia Imoehl Hageman’s 11 children. She grew up on her parent’s farm. Her family ties grew deep and strong and continued through the years with Hageman family reunions almost every other year. She enjoyed attending St. Mary’s School in Festina. After her class of six boys and six girls graduated from the eighth grade, she spent the next year at home helping her parents. Her interest in becoming a sister was fostered by relatives in the FSPA congregation and her love of nature.

In the summer of 1954 she visited St. Rose Convent on a Sunday, returned home, packed and again returned to St. Rose as an aspirant the following Monday.Joan was received into the FSPA novitiate on Aug. 12, 1957, and was given the name Sister Vernamae. She later went back to her baptismal name. Her profession of vows was made on Aug. 12, 1959, and final profession on Aug. 10, 1964.Sister Joan served her sisters as a homemaker for 17 years, working in the bakery at St. Rose Convent for two of those years and at convent homes in Rozellville and Dodgeville, Wis.; Bellevue, West Point and Breda, Iowa and Provo, Utah.

In 1976, Sister Joan transitioned to the ministry of activities director at Villa St. Joseph, a post she held until 1983. At that time, she studied occupational therapy in Des Moines, and served as activity director at Willis Adult Day Care. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Human Services at Grandview College in Des Moines, she went on to earn a Clinical Pastoral Education certificate at Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines. She served as chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital in Centralia, Ill., 1991 to 1995. After a two year renewal program at Little Falls, Minn., Sister Joan began her ministry as receptionist, gardener and decorator at Villa St. Joseph. She continued these activities until her health began to fail.  Community members, family, colleagues and friends remember Sister Joan as a happy, joy-filled person, always ready for any invitation to explore something new.

Her smile and hearty laugh were both infectious. She loved her family and didn’t miss a family reunion as long as her health permitted. She was quite an artist; doing beautiful rosemaling and also oil paintings and water colors which can be found around the Villa. Her creativity was expressed there in numerous ways, especially at times of the many holidays and feast days celebrated there as she decked the halls with flowers gleaned from the garden.

Sister Joan is survived by her Franciscan community; a sister Delores Kuennen of Sumner, Iowa and sisters-in-law Patricia Hageman of Shell Rock and Elaine Hageman of Ankeny both of Iowa; plus numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Ermin, Edwin, Quentin, Victor and Marcellinus and her sisters Vera Kriener, Lucile Kruse, Rita Wenthold and Florentina Hageman.Friends may call after 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23, at St. Rose Convent, La Crosse. A wake service will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in Mary of the Angels Chapel. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 24, in the convent chapel. Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, La Crosse. Schumacher-Kish Funeral Home is assisting with the services.Memorials may be sent to Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 912 Market Street, La Crosse, WI 54601-4782.

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