Sister Margaret Rose Winkelmann

Sister Margaret Rose Winkelmann, MM, a missioner and educator in Tanzania, died January 8, 2013, in Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care III. She was 96 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for over 70 years.

Born on December 10, 1916, in Jefferson City, MO, to William F. and Anna M. Kemna Winkelmann, Sister Margaret Rose was raised in Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Archdiocese of St. Louis, and graduated from Notre Dame Academy, Quincy, IL, in 1934.  She entered Maryknoll at their motherhouse in Ossining, NY, on September 6,  1942, and graduated from Maryknoll Teachers College in 1948.

Following graduation from MTC, Sister Margaret Rose was among the first Maryknoll Sisters to serve in Tanzania. Assigned there in 1948, she remained in that country until 1992, helping to found three schools: Kowak Primary School in Musoma, Marian Girls Secondary School in Morogoro, and Rosary Girls Secondary School in Mwanza. She also held to establish a local religious community for women, the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Africa and served as local and regional  superior for the Maryknoll Sisters in East Africa from 1954 to 1969.

After returning to the States, she served from 1992 – 2004 in the Maryknoll Sisters’ Development Department, working in direct mail and with major donors at Maryknoll, NY, before retiring and becoming part of Eden Community at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY.

A Vesper service will be held for Sister Margaret Rose on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, at 4:15 p.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 17, 2013, both to be held in the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining. Burial will be in the Maryknoll Sisters cemetery at Maryknoll, NY. Dorsey Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.