Sister Reitz taught at St. Gabriel the Archangel

School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Alice (Mary Josene)
Reitz, who served for 68 years in religious life, died Feb. 5 at St. Anthony’s Gardens in Covington, where she had resided since 2019. She was 86.

A memorial Mass was celebrated by Father Rodney Bourg on Feb. 17 at Most Holy Trinity Church in Covington.

A native of Cleveland, Sister Mary Alice grew up in St. Louis and chose a green burial in the sisters’ cemetery in Chatawa, Mississippi.

She is survived by a sister, Waline Schieman, and a brother, Martin Reitz. She was preceded in death by her parents, Idamae (Martin) and Raymond Reitz, and her brother Gerald.

  She professed first vows on Aug. 1, 1955, and her final vows on Aug. 1, 1961, and later returned to her baptismal name.

For 19 years, Sister Mary Alice taught children in the elementary grades in Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

In the Archdiocese of New Orleans, she taught at St. Gabriel the Archangel School and also served in parish ministry and religious education at Sacred Heart in New Orleans.

In 2014, she moved to the former St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, before coming to Covington in 2019 to live at St. Anthony’s Gardens.