Sister Elizabeth Bain, former Bishop England teacher, dies at age 76

BALTIMORE, MD.—Sister Elizabeth Lyons Bain, of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a former educator, died on July 21 at Maria Health Care Center. She was 76.

The Mass of Christian burial was held July 25 in Villa Assumpta chapel. Burial was at Villa Maria Cemetery in Glen Arm.

Sister Elizabeth was one of 10 children of the late Katherine Kirk and Edward H. Bain in Crozet, Va. She attended St. Joseph College in Emmittsburg for two years before entering the Daughters of Charity in September 1959. She graduated from St. Joseph in 1959 and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Sister Elizabeth’s first assignment was as a math teacher at Immaculate Conception Academy (now All Saints High School) in Washington, D.C. In 1963, she was sent to Charleston, S.C., and taught at Bishop England High School. It was there that she first came into contact with the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

In 1970, she was assigned to Seton High School in Baltimore and in 1982 to Petersburg, Va., to teach at Gibbons High School (now St. Vincent de Paul).

In 1984, she transferred to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. During the process she lived at Notre Dame Prep Convent and Cathedral of Mary Our Queen Convent while teaching part-time at Notre Dame Preparatory School.

Sister Elizabeth participated in the New Horizons Program at the College of Notre Dame and in the Global Apostolic Awareness Program in Honduras, Central America. Later she returned to Central America under the sponsorship of the SHARE Foundation.

On Oct. 3, 1987, she made her final commitment as a School Sister of Notre Dame. She continued to teach at Notre Dame Prep until June 1990, then served as a pastoral minister at Casa Apostolica in Julicalpa, Honduras, from 1990 to 1991. On her return to Baltimore, Sister Elizabeth served in adult literacy at St. Veronica (1991- 1997), as a GED instructor at Damascus Education Center (1997-2002), and as an instructor at Caroline Center (2002-2009).

In 2009, she moved to Villa Assumpta and in 2011 she moved to Maria Health Care Center.

Sister Elizabeth is survived by her brothers: Richard E., Father Daniel, Edward Jr., George, and Frank Bain, and their families.

Memorials may be made to the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Atlantic-Midwest Province at www.amssnd.org.

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