Felician Sister Mary Virginette (Lillian) Reczek, 96, died Jan. 19 in Our Lady of the Angels Convent.

Born in Chicago, she attended Holy Trinity School and Good Counsel High School. She entered the Felician Sisters in 1941 and professed her final vows in 1949. She ministered as a teacher in various elementary schools in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

After attending a program of studies at the Deaf Institute, she worked for 13 years with hearing-impaired people in a number of schools in the archdiocese. She served as a clinician and later as  the director of the Felician College Psychoeducation Center.

She was in provincial leadership for six years followed by work in behavioral medicine at St. Mary’s Hospital in Centralia, Illinois.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she ministered at St. John of God (1941-1942), Holy Innocents (1943-1944), St. James (1944-1946, 1964-1965), St. Bronislava (1946-1948), St. Helen (1951-1954), St. Hedwig Orphanage (1954-1960), St. Joseph School (1960-1962), and St. Frances DePaul School for the Deaf (1962-1973) and Felician College (1973-1987).