Sr. Patricia Heidenry, CHM

Sister Patricia Heidenry, CHM, 94, died December 27, 2025, at Senior Star in Davenport, Iowa. Funeral services will be held at Humility of Mary Center, 820 W Central Park Ave, Davenport. A Vigil Service will be held on Thursday, January 8, at 7 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Friday, January 9, at 11 a.m., followed by inurnment at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Davenport. Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements.

Patricia Gertrude Heidenry was born September 1, 1931, in Mason City, Iowa, to James Francis and Mary Cannon Heidenry. She entered the Franciscan Sisters (OSF) in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1949 and transferred her membership to the Congregation of the Humility of Mary (CHM) in 1977.

Sister Pat earned a BA in Elementary Education from Loras College in Dubuque and Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1960, after which she pursued her academic interests during summer sessions, taking courses in theology and psychology. In 1972, she took counseling classes at the Albert Cardinal Meyer Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in 1974, she studied pastoral counseling at the St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. From 1976-79, she was a student in the Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska, completing a Clinical Pastoral Education program to become a hospital chaplain. Concurrently, she studied Social Work at the University of Iowa. From 1979-80, she attended the “Corpus Practicum” program at Seattle University, earning a certificate in Pastoral Ministry. In addition to these programs, she attended over a dozen workshops in Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana, studying counseling, education and theology.

Sister’s career took her from the Midwest to the West Coast. She served as an elementary school teacher for twelve years, from 1952-1974, traveling to schools in Melrose Park, Illinois; Waterloo, Iowa; Crescent City, California; Pocahontas, Iowa; and Remsen, Iowa. She then served as a hospital chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital at Creighton University in Omaha from 1974-76 and from 1981-82, an associate teacher and child-care worker/counselor at Orchard Place in Des Moines, Iowa, from 1976-79, as Liturgy Director at St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church in Elkhart, Indiana, from 1980-81, as a pastoral associate at St. Mark in Iowa Falls, Iowa, from 1982-85, a pastoral associate in Austin, Minnesota, from 1985-86, and as Religious Education Coordinator at Holy Family Parish in Davenport from 1987-88. Sister Pat then served a full decade at St. Joseph Church in Quincy, Illinois, followed by eleven years as a pastoral associate at the St. Francis Center in Dubuque, and three years as a minister of prayer and witness at Holy Trinity Church in Dubuque. After retiring in 2011, she served as a volunteer and minister of prayer and witness at the Humility of Mary Center in Davenport.

Sister Pat was a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, the Omaha Business and Professional Women’s Club, and in 1972 became a qualified member of the National Transactional Analysis Association. She served on the Sisters Council of Seattle, Washington, and on various CHM committees including Care of Earth, and Service.

As a child, Sister was active in the Scouts and enjoyed camping, swimming, and baseball. These hobbies carried into adulthood, as evidenced by a lifelong love of hiking, cross-country skiing, and other nature activities, as well as reading, cooking and sewing. Her friends fondly recall her deep love of music, with her not only leading songs at Mass, but often bursting into song mid-conversation, a joyful habit she still engaged in until her death.

Sister Pat was the sixth of seven girls in her family and is preceded in death by her parents and sisters Ellen Heidenry (infant), Laura Tupler, Jean Frances Talbert, Margaret M. Pandorf and Pauline Ann Aspinwall. She is survived by her sister Sylvia Phipps, numerous nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, cousins and the sisters and associates of her religious community.

Memorials may be made to the Congregation of the Humility of Mary.