Sister Martha Mary Conrad, CHM, 76, died May 8 at Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in Johnston.
Martha Ann Conrad was born Jan. 17, 1940, to Anthony Leonard and Agatha Marie Hammes Conrad in Sigourney. She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in 1958, professing vows in 1961 with the name Sr. Martha Mary.
Sr. Conrad received her AA from Ottumwa Heights College in Ottumwa, a BA from Marycrest College in Davenport and continued studies at St. Pius Religious Education Center in Detroit. For more than a decade Sr. Conrad taught elementary students at St. Alphonsus in Davenport, Lourdes Memorial in Bettendorf, St. Pius X in Des Moines, Sacred Heart in West Des Moines and St. Louis the King in Glendale, Ariz.
In 1975, she began ministry at St. Mildred Church in Somerset, Ky., as outreach director, starting a center for the poor and needy, a food pantry and jail ministry. She retired to Des Moines in 2009, volunteering at Holy Family School and in the River Bend area, especially with the Catholic Worker community and with food distribution for Mary’s Meals.
Her funeral was celebrated May 16 at St. Mary Parish in Sigourney. Burial was at Clear Creek Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Congregation of the Humility of Mary.