September 30, 1930 — April 18, 2024
Sister Mary Alvina Gill, CSSF, 93, died in Mother of Good Counsel Convent, Chicago, Illinois, after having lived 74 years in religious life.
Sister Mary Alvina was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 30, 1930. She was Frank and Mary Gill’s only child. At her Baptism in St. John of God Church in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1930, she was given the name La Verne. She attended SS. Peter and Paul Elementary School and graduated from St. Joseph High School in Chicago.
Having a strong Catholic faith and being influenced by the Felician Sisters who taught her in grade school and high school, La Verne entered the Postulancy in 1949 and was later given the religious name of Sister Mary Alvina at her Investiture on August 12, 1950. Sister Mary Alvina professed her final vows on August 22, 1957.
Sister Mary Alvina served as an educator for six years early in her religious life at St. Wenceslaus, Sacred Heart, and St. Joseph Elementary Schools in Chicago, Illinois, until 1957.
Soon after, Sister Mary Alvina began her education in the field of Nursing, having received a certificate as a Licensed Practical Nurse by 1958 in Blackwell, Oklahoma. It is helpful to remember that during these years, many of the Nursing Courses were being taught right in the hospitals themselves, as was true of hers in Oklahoma and La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her career in nursing was fully launched in 1965 when she was asked to serve as Supervisor of the Medical Floor at St. Mary’s Hospital in Centralia, Illinois.
After her studies at Felician College, Loyola University and Viterbo College, Sister Mary Alvina completed her formal education with a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration in 1985 in Joliet, Illinois. She continued at various levels of firsthand nursing for almost 20 years. But Sister Mary Alvina was gifted in other ways too, eventually achieving her license in Nursing Home Administration. These credentials assisted her in her subsequent role of Assistant Administrator of St. Andrew Home in Niles, Illinois and St. Andrew Life Center.