Mass of Resurrection for Sister Mary Ancilla Russell will be Monday, July 11, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Presentation Convent, Aberdeen, SD. Reverend David Janes will be celebrant and homilist. Burial will be at the Sacred Heart Cemetery. Visitation begins at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, July 10, with a Scriptural Wake Service at 6:30 p.m. in Blessed Sacrament Chapel. On-line condolences may be left at Spitzer-Miller Funeral Home’s website.
Sister Ancilla Russell, 93, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, died July 6, 2016, at Presentation Convent, Aberdeen, SD. Marian Jean Russell was born April 16, 1923 in Britton, SD to Charles Edmund and Sarah Cordella “Cora” (Malloy) Russell.
On January 6, 1947, she entered Presentation Convent and made her first profession of vows on August 10, 1949. Sister Ancilla received a Teaching Certificate from Notre Dame Jr. College, Mitchell, SD in 1950, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Northern State University in 1963, a Master’s in Communication Arts from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN in 1969 and did graduate studies in Theology at St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO in 1976.
Sister Ancilla spent 35 years as an educator, teaching students of all ages from second grade through post-secondary in Anoka and Willmar, MN, and Sioux Falls, Madison, Aberdeen, Mitchell, and Dell Rapids, SD as well as serving as an English Instructor, Coordinator of Interdisciplinary Education and Chair of the Humanities Division, Presentation College, Aberdeen, SD.
Sister Ancilla is survived by her Presentation Community of Sisters, Aberdeen, SD, many nieces, nephews and cousins. She is preceded in death by her parents; Cora and Charles E. Russell; two brothers, Charles F. “Kelly” and Richard; three sisters, Muriel McHugh, Elizabeth and Regena Russell.