Sister Kathleen Frances Goodheart, OSF 1934-2020

Educator for 48 years Sister Kathleen Frances Goodheart (formerly Sister Mary Kevin) died Sept. 20, 2020, in Mercy Nursing Facility at OLV. She was 86.  Sister Kathleen lived 52 years as a Franciscan Missionary Sister of the Divine Child and 16 years as a Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities as a result of a merger and eventual union of three religious congregations.

Sister Kathleen was born on Feb. 10, 1934, in Jamestown, to Lawrence Thomas and Bertha Gillespie Goodheart, both of Ogdensburg. Her father was a linotype operator for the Jamestown newspapers and her mother was a nurse. Sister Kathleen attended Jamestown High School.

After entering the convent on Sept. 7, 1952, Sister earned a bachelor’s degree in Education at Medaille College and a master’s in Education at Canisius College, both in Buffalo. 

Sister Kathleen served for 48 years in education teaching French, English and American history and government at schools across the country. She began her teaching career at St. Joseph Old Cathedral and continued on to Immaculate Heart of Mary, Buffalo; St. Pius X Mission Center, Batavia; Our Lady of Loretto, Buffalo; Our Lady of Miracles, Brooklyn; Blessed Sacrament, San Antonio, Texas; De Sales High School, Lockport; and Turner-Carroll High School, Buffalo. She loved teaching and the students she taught.

In more recent years, Sister Kathleen served four years in community administration and community service for 13 years and most recently in prayer ministry. She loved dogs, shopping, singing and stuffed animals. She especially liked driving people to doctor’s appointments, shopping and other errands. Her friends and students affectionately called her “Mario Andretti.”

She was preceded in death by her parents her brother, Thomas Lawrence, her sister, Joan Mary.

A private funeral Mass will be offered in the St. Mary of the Angels Chapel at Fredonia Place of Williamsville on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Interment will be in Gethsemane Cemetery in Williamsville.