Sister Mary Frances Bruns, CSJ, died Nov. 6 at the Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis. She was 66 years old.

Daughter of George and Gertrude Bruns, she entered the sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1959 at age 17 and made her final profession in August 1964.

Sister Mary Fran served in the Atlanta Archdiocese on and off after her profession, working as a teacher at St. Joseph Home, an orphanage in Washington, Ga., and later at the Village of St. Joseph in Atlanta, a residential facility for troubled youth, in the mid-1960s. In 1973, she was named the director of exceptional children services for Catholic Social Services in Atlanta. She became the assistant administrator at the Village of St. Joseph in 1982 and was named the administrator in 1984, in which capacity she served until 1990.

In an interview with The Georgia Bulletin in 1986 about her work with at-risk children at the Village, Sister Mary Fran said, “Many (children) feel there is absolutely nothing ahead for them.” She continued, “When they start turning on to their life and what is ahead for them, that is a beautiful, beautiful moment.” She spent much of her ministry rehabilitating troubled children so they could return to their families.

A Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated for Sister Mary Fran on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 10 a.m. at the Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis. She was interred at Nazareth Cemetery.

She is survived by a sister and a brother.