Sister Mary Gemma Owens, 83, elementary teacher

Sister Mary Gemma Owens, a member for 64 years of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and longtime elementary school teacher, died of heart failure Sept. 5 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The Baltimore native was 83.

Born Bertha Mary Owens, she attended the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore's school. She entered the Roman Catholic order in 1939, and professed her vows in 1942. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the College of Notre Dame.

A teacher at St. Pius V Parochial School in West Baltimore in the 1940s and again in the 1950s, she also held teaching posts in Charleston, S.C., Washington, Sharon, Pa., and Wilson, N.C.

Colleagues in her order said she loved animals and requested she be remembered with the phrase, "Nature has lost a friend." She also enjoyed reading, crocheting and poetry.

Because of failing health, she returned to the Catonsville-area Our Lady of Mount Providence Convent in 1975. A Mass of Christian burial was offered there Wednesday.

She had no immediate survivors.