Official Obituary of
Barbara Bacak
August 31, 2021
Barbara Bacak Obituary
Sister Barbara Bacak, following a lengthy illness, died peacefully in the early morning of Tuesday, August 31, 2021, at St. Anthony’s Gardens, in Covington, La.
Family and friends are invited to the Visitation and Prayer Service for Sister Barbara on Thursday, September 9, 2021 at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 501 Holy Trinity Dr., Covington, LA 70433. The Prayer Service will be at 9:45AM, followed by the 11:00 AM Eucharistic Celebration, with Rev. Rodney Bourg, pastor, as celebrant.
Barbara Joan Bacak was born in Kerrville, Texas in 1949. She was the sixth of eight children born to John and Bettie Polansky Bacak. On June 26, 1949, she was baptized.
The family moved to Alice, Texas when Barbara was but one year old. With her older brothers and sisters, she attended St. Elizabeth’s Elementary School, where she met the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The impression they made on Barbara was a lasting one. Even as she found each of her years in the public junior and senior high school in Alice very meaningful and delightful, she maintained her relationship with the Sisters at St. Elizabeth’s.
Focusing her interest in her life-choice was an event when she was eight years old, when her sister, Rose Ann, became a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. From then on Barbara believed that following her sister was what God wanted her to do.
Barbara entered the sisters’ religious and professional formation program in St. Louis in 1967. After her profession of vows in 1969, she continued her studies. In 1971, she was given her first assignment as primary childrens’ teacher at Our Lady Queen of Heaven School, in Lake Charles, LA.
Sister Barbara loved teaching the little children. This she did through most of her classroom teaching experience in Marrero, LA and in San Antonio, TX. As the new decade began in 1980 she was asked to fill a new role as elementary school administrator. She filled this role until 1990, at two schools, in Jackson, Miss: St. Theresa and Holy Family schools.
The next six years found her in a very different ministry, mostly with adults instead of children. She was pastoral minister in St. Margaret Parish in Lake Charles, LA.
Sister Barbara discerned that God was calling her to be a missionary in other lands. For a year she studied the culture and language of Guatemala. Then in July of 1997 she left to serve as catechist in Guatemala City. Among that language group she ministered until 2003.
Her love of the congregation and her own vocation prompted province leaders to ask her to become Vocation Director. Her love of language, of literature and her secretarial skills attracted those leaders to invite her to serve in the communication office of the Province.
Sister Barbara spent the last four years of active ministry as chaplain at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. In the autumn of 2019, declining health conditions caused her to retire to St. Anthony’s Gardens in Covington, Louisiana.
At St. Anthony’s, Barbara’s condition steadily declined so much that the other School Sisters who live at St. Anthony kept watchful prayer with her during several weeks before her death on the last day of August.
Sister Barbara was preceded in death by her mother and father, her two sisters, and four brothers. She is survived by her sisters, Sister Rose Ann Bacak, SSND and Bettie Opiela, and her nieces and nephews.
Internment will be in the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cemetery in Chatawa, Miss.
Knights of Columbus, Most Holy Trinity Council, will serve as pallbearers.
Condolences and tributes can be posted at www.serenitycovington.com
Funeral HomeSerenity Funeral Home
20419 Hwy 36
Covington LA - 70433
US
(985) 875-1131
(985) 875-1132
Family and friends are invited to the Visitation and Prayer Service for Sister Barbara on Thursday, September 9, 2021 at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 501 Holy Trinity Dr., Covington, LA 70433. The Prayer Service will be at 9:45AM, followed by the 11:00 AM Eucharistic Celebration, with Rev. Rodney Bourg, pastor, as celebrant.
Barbara Joan Bacak was born in Kerrville, Texas in 1949. She was the sixth of eight children born to John and Bettie Polansky Bacak. On June 26, 1949, she was baptized.
The family moved to Alice, Texas when Barbara was but one year old. With her older brothers and sisters, she attended St. Elizabeth’s Elementary School, where she met the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The impression they made on Barbara was a lasting one. Even as she found each of her years in the public junior and senior high school in Alice very meaningful and delightful, she maintained her relationship with the Sisters at St. Elizabeth’s.
Focusing her interest in her life-choice was an event when she was eight years old, when her sister, Rose Ann, became a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. From then on Barbara believed that following her sister was what God wanted her to do.
Barbara entered the sisters’ religious and professional formation program in St. Louis in 1967. After her profession of vows in 1969, she continued her studies. In 1971, she was given her first assignment as primary childrens’ teacher at Our Lady Queen of Heaven School, in Lake Charles, LA.
Sister Barbara loved teaching the little children. This she did through most of her classroom teaching experience in Marrero, LA and in San Antonio, TX. As the new decade began in 1980 she was asked to fill a new role as elementary school administrator. She filled this role until 1990, at two schools, in Jackson, Miss: St. Theresa and Holy Family schools.
The next six years found her in a very different ministry, mostly with adults instead of children. She was pastoral minister in St. Margaret Parish in Lake Charles, LA.
Sister Barbara discerned that God was calling her to be a missionary in other lands. For a year she studied the culture and language of Guatemala. Then in July of 1997 she left to serve as catechist in Guatemala City. Among that language group she ministered until 2003.
Her love of the congregation and her own vocation prompted province leaders to ask her to become Vocation Director. Her love of language, of literature and her secretarial skills attracted those leaders to invite her to serve in the communication office of the Province.
Sister Barbara spent the last four years of active ministry as chaplain at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. In the autumn of 2019, declining health conditions caused her to retire to St. Anthony’s Gardens in Covington, Louisiana.
At St. Anthony’s, Barbara’s condition steadily declined so much that the other School Sisters who live at St. Anthony kept watchful prayer with her during several weeks before her death on the last day of August.
Sister Barbara was preceded in death by her mother and father, her two sisters, and four brothers. She is survived by her sisters, Sister Rose Ann Bacak, SSND and Bettie Opiela, and her nieces and nephews.
Internment will be in the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cemetery in Chatawa, Miss.
Knights of Columbus, Most Holy Trinity Council, will serve as pallbearers.
Condolences and tributes can be posted at www.serenitycovington.com
Funeral HomeSerenity Funeral Home
20419 Hwy 36
Covington LA - 70433
US
(985) 875-1131
(985) 875-1132
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