Sister Margaret Jones, 77, chaplain, educator

Sister Margaret Jones, 77, a teacher and chaplain, died Saturday, Sept. 6, of cancer in Assisi House in Aston Township, Delaware County.

She had been a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 55 years.

Originally named Margaret Jones, she became Sister Jozeta Marie soon after entering the religious order in the 1950s. She changed her name back to Margaret Jones when the Catholic Church allowed nuns to do so.

Born in Detroit, she later moved to Allentown, where she graduated from Allentown Central Catholic High School.

Sister Margaret earned a bachelor's degree in English from Neumann University in 1967 and a master's degree in religious education from La Salle College in 1982. She worked primarily in education, parish ministry, social services, and health care.

Sister Margaret worked for 25 years in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. She taught at St. Piux X High School in Pottstown from 1983 to 1987. She was one of the founding sisters of St. Mary's Franciscan Shelter, in Phoenixville, and worked there from 1987 to 1991.

Since 1997, Sister Margaret had worked as a chaplain at St. Mary Medical Center, in Langhorne.

"Sister Margaret was a soft-spoken, caring woman whose gentle manner was evident to anyone she ministered to - children in the classroom, patients in the hospital, or homeless families at the shelter," said her colleague Sister Ann Marie Slavin.

At various times, Sister Margaret also served as a chaplain in the Diocese of Allentown and at St. Joseph Hospital in Reading.

Sister Margaret taught in Wilmington for a time. Additional teaching assignments took her to Silver Spring, Md.; Orlando, Fla.; and Spartanburg, S.C.

In 2014 she moved to Assisi House in Aston, where she prayed until her death.

She is survived by a brother and nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were Tuesday, Sept. 9.

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