Sister Anne Gallagher, 74, a nurse

Sister Anne Gallagher, 74, a nurse and member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 49 years, died Sunday, Jan. 12, of cancer in Assisi House, Aston Township.

She was born in Washington, N.J., and was a graduate of Washington High School. She graduated from St. Francis Hospital School in Trenton in 1960.

Formerly Sister Margaret Leo, she entered the St. Francis order in 1962 and professed her first vows in 1965. Sister Anne earned a bachelor's degree in nursing in 1974 from Neumann University in Aston. She worked for a while in Trenton.

In 1982, she became a certified registered nurse-practitioner after studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania/Allegheny Hospital.

She was a pioneer in the industry, becoming a nurse-practitioner before it was widely accepted.

Sister Anne's nine years of service in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia included service as a nurse at St. Mary Hospital in Philadelphia from 1970 to 1972. She worked at St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster for 13 years, first as a nursing supervisor and then as a nurse-practitioner until 1990.

Sister Anne also served in the Dioceses of Wilmington and Allentown. While in the latter, she was a school nurse in the Reading School District and a part-time health-services director at Alvernia College.

She received the Alvernia College Student Government Outstanding Staff Member Award in 1994.

From 2006 to 2013, she served as director of senior services for the Sisters of St. Francis, a position that later became a formal part of the order's pastoral-services department.

"Sister Anne was a fantastic nurse and nurse-practitioner, and her experience ran the gamut - from nursing supervisor to the ER, from school nurse to meeting the needs of our elder sisters as they prepared for retirement," said her colleague Sister Ann Marie Slavin.

"As a coworker, she seemed to know just the right time to attend to serious concerns, or to lighten a situation with her own dry sense of humor," Sister Ann Marie said.

She is survived by a brother and nieces and nephews.

A Christian wake service and viewing was held Thursday, Jan. 16, followed by a Funeral Mass in Our Lady of Angels Convent Chapel, 609 S. Convent Rd., Aston. Burial was in Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in Aston.

Donations may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis Foundation, 609 S. Convent Rd., Aston, Pa. 19014.