Davenport — Sister Miriam Anstey, CHM, 98, died June 9 at Senior Star Elmore Place.
Miriam Eugenia Anstey was born July 27, 1927, in Cumberland, Iowa, to Archibald William and Annis Faye (McGrew) Anstey. She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in 1947 and professed vows in 1949 as Sister Miriam Elizabeth.
Sister Anstey earned an associate’s degree in music from Ottumwa Heights College in Ottumwa; a bachelor’s degree in music education from Marycrest College in Davenport; a master’s degree in music from the University of Notre Dame; a master’s degree in counseling from the University of St. Louis; and a doctorate in educational leadership from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois. She undertook additional education courses in music and education at the University of Iowa, the Minneapolis College of Music, the University of Minnesota and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
She taught music at St. Alphonsus School in Davenport, St. Theresa School in Des Moines, Aquinas High School and St. Joseph School in Fort Madison, Gehlen Catholic School in Le Mars, Iowa, and St. Austin School in Minneapolis. She then served as vice president for student affairs at Marycrest College — pausing in the middle for a two-year doctoral fellowship study at the University of Southern Illinois; director and chief administrator of the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles; and dean of continuing education and later vice president for administrative and student services at Emerson College in Boston.
Following her retirement from higher education, Sister Anstey served at St. Thomas Parish in Coralville, was center director of the Humility of Mary Center in Davenport, music director at St. Anthony Parish in Davenport, and finally a volunteer with Humility of Mary Housing.
Music was central to her life. She began performing at age five and, while growing up, played trumpet and sang for local and state competitions. She also played the cello and organ. Sister Anstey performed in University of Minnesota summer concert sessions as a member of the Choral Arts Institute and, after college, taught music during the year and spent her summers at the University of Notre Dame and the Chicago Conservatory studying for her master’s.
A respected educator and administrator, Sister Anstey presented workshops in leadership and management and received numerous honors for her contributions to education.
She also loved to travel. She will be remembered for her generosity of spirit, her dedication to education, and the many students whose lives she touched and for whom she never ceased praying.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated June 15 at the Humility of Mary Center in Davenport. Interment was June 16 at St. Timothy’s Catholic Cemetery in Cumberland, Iowa.
Memorials may be made to the Congregation of the Humility of Mary.
