Sister Joann Stuever, ASC

“…we have the sure hope
of sharing in Jesus’ triumph over death
and living with him in God…”
Easter Vigil Liturgy

Sister Joann Stuever, ASC, of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, entered eternal life on a perfect spring afternoon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Caritas center in Wichita. She was 92 and a professed Adorer of the Blood of Christ for 29 years.

Sister Joann’s adventurous life began March 26, 1933, in Woodward, OK, as the first-born child of Joseph L. and Gladys (New) Schneider. Joann’s extended family was made up of hardworking, German-descended, devoutly Catholic farmers who all managed to make it through the Great Depression. An asthmatic child in the Dust Bowl, her health improved when she and her parents moved to Lawton, OK, where she attended St. Mary’s school, and her father worked in the farm-equipment supply business. He was promoted to Dallas, TX, where Joann finished high school at Merici (now Ursuline) Academy. 

She attended Southern Methodist University, where she earned a degree in chemistry, one of a few female science majors in her world. She dreamed of becoming a geochemist but put that on hold to marry her long-distance high school/college sweetheart, Joe Stuever, in 1954, a few weeks after they both received their degrees. 

His military career sent them to Oklahoma, Texas, and California in short order; Joann and Joe settled down with their three little girls — Pat, Ann and Mary — in Albuquerque, NM, where he worked as an engineer, and she became active in Girl Scouts and other activities. They forged lifelong friendships with other young couples who joined the Christian Family Movement at Queen of Heaven parish. 

The Stuever family moved to Oklahoma City in 1967 for new opportunities – and welcomed a latecomer son/baby brother named Hank. 

Joann joined the faculty at Hefner Junior High (now Hefner Middle School) in 1970, where she taught earth science for 23 years. Science was a lifelong passion: Joann could always tell you just about anything having to do with rock formations, volcanoes, clouds, weather patterns, wildflowers, and more. She could name all the planets and most of the constellations in the night sky. She was a “storm chaser” before that really became a thing. She was active in the Oklahoma City chapter of the Sierra Club. She deeply loved the American West and its mountains — climbing them, admiring them, dreaming of them. For her, there was plenty of room for both science and the divine.

At St. Charles Borromeo parish in Oklahoma City, Joann thrived in a vibrant community that encouraged a strong and active laity. She took on many roles, as lector, eucharistic minister, banner committee chairperson, head sacristan and youth group parent-volunteer (she was famous for leading day-hike outings, campouts and river floats). She loved sharing her faith and enjoyed late-night prayer and deep discussions with close friends and fellow spiritual seekers. 

As her marriage ended in 1982, she took on a second job, teaching geology on weeknights at Oklahoma City Community College. As a single mother (and grandmother) in her early 50s, she struggled to make ends meet and prayed intensely in the early mornings, asking for God’s insight — a plan? A sign? — and attuning herself to God’s will. 

In a talk she gave later in her life, she recalled the moment in 1986 that she heard “a tiny voice” — nevertheless clear — while climbing Colorado’s Humboldt Peak. The message: Come down with me. I have other mountains for you to climb. On the ride home, she said, she knew she was changed. (This did not prevent her from jumping at the opportunity to join a group of science educators on a trip to the crater of Mount St. Helens later that year).

After recovering from a serious car wreck in 1988 and participating in an Ignatian retreat, Joann began to consider and discern a vocation, guided by patient and thoughtful new friends, including Sr. Mary Kevin Rooney, ASC. 

Joann took her first steps in 1990, joining an associate community formed by Sr. Elizabeth Determan, ASC, and other Adorers at Corpus Christi parish in Oklahoma City. A year later, Sr. Joann deepened her commitment and sold her house and belongings, on her way to joining the Adorers full-time. “The call was so strong,” she told the Wichita Eagle in 1993, “I thought, ‘I’m not going to get any peace until I decide.’” Joann retired from teaching and entered the novitiate that year, along with Sr. Joan Greene, who had also been previously married and had children. The two became dear friends until Joan’s death in 2008.

Sister Joann spent part of her candidacy working with other Adorers at St. Paul’s mission in the Navajo Nation in Crownpoint, NM; followed by a year at the central novitiate in St. Louis, MO, where she studied theology and pursued a ministry to care for people living with HIV and AIDS. 

In Wichita, where she professed first vows in 1996 (and final vows in 2001), Sr. Joann worked as director of volunteers at the Wichita Community Clinical AIDS Program and at agencies like ConnectCare, helping provide critical services and community education, raise money and give comfort to the sick and dying during the height of the health crisis. For her, AIDS required a compassionate and active response to patients’ needs, particularly given the high cost of experimental treatments. “If you are not poor before you acquire HIV,” she told an interviewer at the time, “You soon will be.”

After effective drug treatments for HIV and AIDS emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sr. Joann refocused her ministry, returning to her beloved New Mexico in 2005, where she was on the staff of a Dominican-run spiritual retreat center in Albuquerque. The center hosted retreats and provided a peaceful, reflective space for a variety of groups who came there to pray, recover, or meditate. 

Returning to live at the ASC Wichita Center in 2009, Sr. Joann continued her focus on hospitality, overseeing the comings and goings of the Center’s guests and hosted groups. She also participated in several of the Adorers’ local ministries and projects. She found lasting joy in working and living as an Adorer.

In addition to her Sister Adorers, Sr. Joann is survived by her four children: Daughters Pat Graff (Mark Rumsey) of Albuquerque, NM; Ann South of Kissimmee, FL; Mary Stuever of Cimarron, NM; and son Hank Stuever (Michael Wichita) of Washington, DC; as well as five grandchildren (Earl Graff Jr., Jeremy Graff, Matthew Wagnon; Roland Shaw; and Katie Shelburne) and their spouses, and 12 great-grandchildren. 

She is also survived by her siblings, Linda (Marvin) Resnick of Oklahoma City; Louis Schneider (John Johnson) of Dallas, TX; and Mary G. Brown of Wilmington, NC.

She was preceded in death by her parents, as well as a granddaughter, Cairn Michele Shaw; son-in-law Glenn South; and brother-in-law Tom Brown.

Sister Joann will be welcomed home to the ASC Wichita Center (1165 Southwest Blvd.) on Monday, April 28, at 2:00 p.m., with a wake service that evening at 7:00 p.m. 

Mass of Christian Burial will be Tuesday, April 29, at 10:30 a.m., with Tom Welk, C.PP.S, as presider and homilist. Interment will follow at the Center’s community cemetery. 

Donations in Sr. Joann’s memory may be sent to the Adorers at 4233 Sulphur Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109, or made online at www. adorers.org/donate/ .

Sister Joann, you lived among us as mother, teacher, sister, and friend.  We are grateful to you and your family for enriching our ASC community.

Adorers of the Blood of Christ, United Sates Region