Wake Service February 4, 2026
Sister Jo Anne Form was born on October 11, 1939, to Josephine and Carl Form, and was baptized on February 2, 1940, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Fort Worth, Texas. She was the second of their four daughters: Carlene, Jo Anne, Frances, and Mary.
Her early childhood years were lived in Lake Brownwood, Texas, but by the time she entered fifth grade, the family had moved to Fort Worth becoming parishioners of St. Thomas Church where the Lisle Benedictine Sisters resided and taught at St. Thomas School. Now as a fifth grader, Jo Anne was very inspired by Sister Helen Marie Kucera (at that time called Sister Benigna) whom she lovingly trusted as her teacher and as a kind friend. A few months later, Carl Form, the girls’ father, an independent plumber, died of a cerebral hemorrhage leaving the daughters fatherless and their mother a widow who needed to raise her four darling daughters alone.
In recent years, Sister Jo Anne would often recall how providential it was to be at St. Thomas School at the time of her father’s sudden death. It not only happened to be the first time Jo Anne came in contact with religious sisters, but it was as well a good time for her mother to form an enduring friendship with the Benedictine Sisters. After all, her mother needed support with her daughters and the Sisters at St. Thomas needed her mother to be their nurse. Mother Form (as they called her) offered herself to help the other Benedictine Sisters in Fort Worth as well as she became an “on call service nurse” for all four of the small Benedictine communities in Fort Worth, namely at St. George, St. Peter and St. Paul parishes plus those Sisters at St. Thomas. The Sisters at St. Thomas would try to repay Mother Form by keeping her daughters occupied after school if she would be late to pick them up after her work in the hospital.
In observing the welcoming, caring spirit of the Benedictine Sisters, Jo Anne felt excited to be asked to come to Lisle to continue her education when the Sisters invited her to Sacred Heart Academy in 1954, as an eighth grader. She arrived in overwhelming readiness to study in the boarding school environment and after 8to grade continued her high school studies there. During those years she became an aspirant as she began to think seriously about becoming a religious sister.
In 1957, she graduated from Sacred Heart Academy and further planned to enter the convent as a postulant where she would be a part of convent life. Then she stayed another year accepting the required year of faithful observance of study, prayer and work according to the Rule of St. Benedict in the Novitiate as training to be a Benedictine Sister. Staying on her journey of faith in God, she made her first vows in 1958. Three years later, in 1961, she finalized her Benedictine commitment of the vows of Stability, Conversion of Life and Obedience.
After her profession of vows, she began her college level studies receiving her B.A. degree in Education from Loyola University in Chicago and later her M.A. in Elementary School Guidance from our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Through the years she taught in several parochial Schools that were staffed by the Benedictine Sisters, namely, at St. Vitus, Our Lady of the Mount and Our Lady of Lourdes Schools in the Chicago Archdiocese; St. James, St. Scholastica, and St. Irene Schools in the Joliet Diocese and St. Paul in the Fort Worth Diocese. She was also the principal at Our Lady of Lourdes School on Chicago’s West Side for several years. Her life at Our Lady of Lourdes really blossomed as she worked under the leadership of Father Michael Dempsey as pastor there who was involved intimately with the African-American issues of poverty and inequality. Later he became an auxiliary bishop of Chicago but remained pastor there. Sister Jo Anne and the other Sisters were deeply influenced by his kindly ways and worked with his cause of charity.
Throughout her religious life, Sister Jo Anne involved herself enthusiastically in art and music and, when technology came into use, became an expert in teaching herself computer innovations through the years. She played the guitar and liked to sing and, in some schools, where she taught, she was also the children’s choir director with great success. She contributed so much, wherever she was stationed, either in the schools where she taught or in her retirement years at the monastery. She was known for her calligraphy script, using her talent to write formal invitations in that form. Having an eye for perfect design and color, she made beautiful liturgical banners for the chapel, bulletin board arrangements and everything she created was artistically professional. Since she was creatively efficient, she was able to help the other Sisters with what they needed to prepare. She made several different kinds of all-occasion cards for different events making sure they were unique to the persons who would receive them.
With all she accomplished, perhaps the best contribution for the Sisters was for her to provide booklets for the daily horarium of the Divine Office of prayer composed for the entire seasonal church year cycle. The Sisters had been using three books daily in order to piece together the Propers of the day. Then for two years, Sister Jo Anne carefully researched the church season of worship as well as the Bible to prepare the proper inclusion of Psalms, Responses and Antiphons related to the feast or the ordinary of each day. Her work has been a most worthy and an appreciated accomplishment in use year after year. It is so convenient now for those sharing in this Liturgical prayer service in praising God, just to pick-up a booklet and have the total Liturgy put together for that prayer period of the Divine Office. The Sisters are so grateful to Sister Jo Anne for this timely gift.
Sister Jo Anne Form has now laid down her active life of prayer and work to become a member of the ever-joyful life for those who praise God in eternity. She died in the stillness of an early morning call from God on Saturday, January 24, 2026. She had been treated by the attentive staff at S. Patrick’s Residence plus receiving comfort care from the Residential Hospice in Naperville since November of 2025. The Lisle Benedictine Sisters and the Villa St. Benedict Communities will miss her presence, even her unique, Texas accent!
The Wake Vesper Service was held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 3rd and the Mass of Christian burial on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, both in the Sacred Heart Chapel. Burial took place at the St. Scholastica Cemetery on the Villa St. Benedict grounds in Lisle.
LBW December 2008
Sister Jo Anne Form, OSB was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Carl and Josephine Form, the second of four daughters. The family moved to Fort Worth from Lake Brownwood when Sister Jo Anne was in the 5th grade, and she made her first contact with the Benedictine Sisters at St. Thomas School. A few months later, her father, an independent plumber, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Sister Jo Anne remembers that the Sisters were ever so solicitous of the four little girls. Her mother was a nurse and took care of the Sisters at four local parishes anytime they were ill. As she accompanied her mother from convent to convent, Sister Jo Anne got to know the Sisters quite well.
Sister Helen Marie, who was Sister Jo Anne’s 5th grade teacher, was her source of inspiration in wanting to become a religious and live as a Benedictine. Sister Jo Anne remembers that Sister Helen Marie had a wonderful sense of humor, a warm and caring disposition, and was a patient teacher. In particular, Sister Helen Marie helped her with her handwriting “which was atrocious, at the time”. Today, Sister Jo Anne does beautiful calligraphy work - designing the Monastery’s Remembrance Prayer Cards and doing other community art work.
At the age of twelve, Sister Jo Anne came to Lisle and entered the Monastery as an Aspirant. She made her temporary monastic vows in 1958. Her first teaching position was in the kindergarten at St. Vitus School in Chicago, and for over 24 years she served as a class room teacher in Illinois and Texas. After receiving an Elementary Guidance Certificate, she took on the role of Freshman Guidance Counselor at Benet Academy for several years. Jobs as grade school principal, coordinator at Rosehill Montessori School, and part-time financial aid counselor at Illinois Benedictine College, round out Sister Jo Anne’s career outside the Monastery.
For the past eleven years, Sister has served as the Development Office Coordinator. Her job includes preparing all the mailings sent out by the Sisters; recording all gifts to the community and acknowledging our donors; and the design and layout of the Lisle Benedictine Women newsletter that you are reading. She says about the LBW: “It’s a pleasure designing the Sisters’ Lisle Benedictine Women newsletter. We wish to maintain a personal and informative communication with our families and friends and keep you updated on the lives and mission of the Sisters here is Lisle.”
As Sister Jo Anne reflects on her 50 years as a Benedictine Sister, she says: “It has been an awesome experience being part of the historical changes taking place at the monastery. My prayer is that we continue to meet the challenges that bond the Sisters and the Villa St. Benedict Residents, who have become an integral part of our lives. I can identify with the person who was inspired to write the lyrics of the song, “Surely the Presence of the Lord is in This Place.”