OGDENSBURG – Funeral services for Sister Eunice Lalonde, GNSH (formerly Sister Jane of the Sacred Heart), 76, will be held on Friday, July 23, at Notre Dame Church at 11 a.m. with Bishop Terry LaValley officiating.

Burial will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery in the Grey Nuns Lots.

Calling hours will be held on Thursday, July 22, at Frary Funeral Home from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m.

Sister Eunice passed on July 19, 2010 at St. Joseph's Home in the 59th year of her religious life.

In the span of her ministry, she was teacher, religious education director and social worker. These activities were supplemented by various types of community service, including time as a Red Cross blood bank volunteer and an EMT member of the Potsdam Volunteer Rescue Squad.

She was a member of the board of directors and an initial organizing member of the Potsdam Interfaith Community Service Council.

Appointed to the Claxton-Hepburn Board of Directors in 2001, she served as a board member until 2006. She also served as president and secretary for the Council of Religious Women in the diocese of Ogdensburg.

Sister Eunice is survived by a brother-in-law, Ronald Para; three nieces, Susan Tooley and her husband Michael, Diana Para and Valerie Delarge; three nephews, Michael Para and his wife Laurie, Stephen Lalonde and his wife Kathy and Gregory Lalonde.

She is predeceased by one brother Stuart and four sisters, Evelyn and Loretta Lalonde, Marilyn Para and Vivian Adams.

Sister Eunice was born on Feb. 8, 1934, the daughter of Leon and Mildred (Williams) Lalonde.

A native of Ogdensburg, she ministered for 39 years in her home diocese.

From 1986 until 2010 she worked at the St. Lawrence NYSARC in Canton.

Even though increasingly disabled by illness in the last several years, she continued to serve the people she loved as long as she was able.

In 1993 she was honored as Employee of the Year. In 2003 she received the Keith Bush Award for her dedication and perseverance. In 2007 she received 20 years experience award.

Prior to moving in to the field of social work, she served as religious education director at St. Mary's School in Potsdam for nine years and at the Indian River School of religion for one year in Philadelphia, N.Y.

Previously, she taught elementary grades in Buffalo and Ogdensburg, and King of Prussia, Pa.

High school religion and Spanish received her attention in Philadelphia, Pa., for six years followed by two years as a nurse aid at the Motherhouse Infirmary in Yardley, Pa.

Donations may be made in her memory to Sisters of the Grey Nuns and the St. Lawrence NYSARC.