JOHNSTON, IOWA — Sister Virginia Bartholome, CHM, 100, died July 13 at Bishop Drumm Care Center in Johnston, Iowa.
Virgina Mary Bartholome was born Oct. 10, 1923, in Great Falls, Montana, to William and Margaret (Franklin) Bartholome. She entered the Sisters of the Humility of Mary in 1943 and professed vows in 1946 as Sister Marita. Before entering the community, she was a volunteer nurse aide during World War II.
Sister Bartholome completed a three-year business education program at Great Falls College in Great Falls, a B.S. in Business Education from Marycrest College in Davenport, a B.S. in Library Science from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an M.S. In Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
From 1947-1957, she served as a business teacher and librarian at Catholic schools in Montana. She was the lead librarian at Marycrest College from 1957-1973, taking a one-year sabbatical to study administrative procedures at merged college libraries in preparation for a proposed merger between Marycrest and St. Ambrose colleges. During this sabbatical, she served as an intern at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and took administrative courses in library science at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She served as president of the Iowa Library Association in 1970. Sister Bartholome returned to Great Falls in the mid 1970s and worked as a reference librarian for the Great Falls Public Library until her retirement in 1996. Despite being retired, she spent over a decade working in the University of Great Falls’ archives, organizing the collection. She also worked in ministries aiding inmates, the sick, the homebound and those living in nursing homes. She moved to the Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in Johnston in 2009, where she served in a ministry of prayer and witness.
The funeral Mass was to be celebrated at 11 a.m. July 18 at the Humility of Mary Center Magnificat Chapel in Davenport. Burial will be in Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Davenport.
