Sister Winifred Moersen dies March 27 at age 97

COLORADO SPRINGS. Franciscan Sister Winifred Moersen died March 27 at age 97 at Mount St. Francis Nursing Center. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated April 5 at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, followed by burial in Mount St. Francis Cemetery.

Sister Winifred was born Aug. 6, 1927 in Columbus, Nebraska, the sixth of seven children born to William and Helen Moersen. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration on Aug. 11, 1945, in Denver. She made her final vows on Aug. 17, 1953.

Sister Winifred earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas and a master’s degree in music from De Paul University in Chicago. 

For her entire life, Sister ministered as a music teacher in both elementary and secondary schools in Nebraska, New Mexico and Colorado. She was an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Albuquerque, New Mexico for twenty-two years. She came to Colorado Springs in 1986 and was assigned as an organist at the provincialate until the time of her death.