Sister Frances Marie Heitz, 96, died Friday, June 10, 2011, in the Dominican Sisters convent infirmary, Great Bend. Born October 5, 1914, in Ost, Kansas, as Thecla Rose Heitz, Sister Frances Marie was the daughter of the late Ben and Mary Robben Heitz. She entered the Dominican Sisters Community May 27, 1929, and pronounced her first vows August 22, 1932. She celebrated seventy-five years of religious profession in 2007. Sister Frances Marie began her ministerial career as a teacher in parochial elementary schools of Kansas in 1934. In 1943 she became Director of Novices at the Motherhouse in Great Bend, a position she held until 1966. Later she also worked in religious education of adults by correspondence courses for ten years and finally as secretary and assistant at the Art of Learning Center in Wichita, Kansas. She retired at the Motherhouse in Great Bend in 2006. Sister Frances Marie is survived by her Dominican Sisters of Peace religious community and nephews and nieces: Karl & Eileen Petersen of Fredonia, Kansas; Anita & Gorden Erickson of Wichita, Kansas; and Dale Petersen of Wichita, Kansas. Sister Frances Maries body will be brought to the hospitality area of the Dominican Chapel of the Plains, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, on Saturday, June 11, at 4:00 p.m., where it will lie in state until the Liturgy of Christian Burial at 10:00 a.m., Monday, June 13, with Rev. Robert Schremmer presiding. A wake service will be held Sunday, June 12, at 7:00 p.m. Burial will be in the Sisters Resurrection Cemetery. Both the wake and the funeral will be held at the convent (see chapel address above). Memorials in honor of Sister Frances Marie may be sent to: Dominican Sisters of Peace, 2320 Airport Dr., Columbus, OH 43219-2098. Bryant Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Friends may call at the convent, Sunday, June 12, from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and from 6 p.m. until the wake service at 7:00 p.m., and Monday morning from 8:30 a.m. until the funeral Mass at 10 a.m.