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Sister Anna Cosgrove | Administrator, 93

Sister Anna Cosgrove, 93, an educator and elder-care administrator, died of cardiovascular disease Wednesday, Dec. 1, at Assisi House, the retirement residence for the Sisters of St. Francis in Aston.

Sister Anna Cosgrove, 93, an educator and elder-care administrator, died of cardiovascular disease Wednesday, Dec. 1, at Assisi House, the retirement residence for the Sisters of St. Francis in Aston.

Sister Anna grew up in Lost Creek, Schuylkill County. At 15 she entered the Convent of the Sisters of St. Francis in Aston, where she completed her high school education. By 17, she was teaching at St. Elizabeth School in Philadelphia. After 11 years there, she taught at Sacred Heart School in Philadelphia and at elementary schools in the Diocese of Allentown.

In 1956, her religious order recognized her potential as an administrator and appointed her principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Doylestown. By then, Sister Anna had earned a bachelor's degree in education from Villanova University. She also was principal at St. Ignatius School in Yardley, back at St. Elizabeth, and at Nativity School in Yardley, and she was administrator at St. Francis Children's Home in Orwigsburg, Pa., before switching her focus to elder care in 1974.

For two years, Sister Ann was administrator for St. Mary's Convent, then a retirement residence for the Sisters of St. Francis in Bryn Mawr. In 1976 she became administrator for the newly opened Assisi House.

She was director of volunteers at Immaculate Mary Home, a skilled-nursing facility in Northeast Philadelphia, from 1980 until retiring to a ministry of prayer in 1999.

Sister Anna is survived by nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 7, at Assisi House, 600 Red Hill Rd., Aston, where a wake service and viewing will begin at 9:30. Burial will be in Our Lady of Angels Cemetery, Aston.

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