Dominican Sister of Peace Corona (Lavinia) Bayer died on April 27, 2020, at the Great Bend, KS, Motherhouse, in the heart of the Sunflower state where she spent much of her life and her seventy years of ministry.
Sister Corona was born in Willowdale, Kansas in 1928 to Margaret Gehlen and William Bayer. Like her older sister, Sister Camillus, she heard the call to serve God and God’s people as a religious sister and joined the Congregation in 1947
Sister Corona had the heart of Mary, but the hard-working hands of Martha. For many years her ministry was one of caring and service, doing domestic work in Kansas and Oklahoma. She also helped in the main kitchen of the Great Bend Motherhouse and in the sewing room, which must have helped lead Sr. Corona to her later ministry creating beautiful and practical handmade items to help support our missions.
Sister Corona earned her Certification as a Nurse Aide from the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1970 and additional Certification from Barton Community College in 1976. With this knowledge she was able to begin a new ministry of caring, serving through the Health Aid Service and as a Nurse Aide in Colorado and Kansas.
Sister Corona was dedicated to the missions of the Congregation as well as to a mission close to her own heart, the Central Kansas Association for the Visually Impaired. She created countless wonderful handcrafted items to be sold at the annual CKA VI and Great Bend Mission craft shows. Her craft table were always full of quilts and baby blankets, hats and scarves, table runners, along with dolls and other toys, not to mention the thousands of scrubbies that have become a main staple each year. She was especially pleased to create a Dominican Sister doll for the Lourdes Museum in France.
In her remembrance at Sr. Corona’s wake, Sister Renee Dreiling quoted the reading from Revelations 14:13, “Happy are the dead who die in the Lord. They shall find rest from their labors, for their good works accompany them.” Sr. Corona was, Sr. Renee said, a woman of innumerable good works, but also a woman of kindness, of generosity, and of gentle, playful nature. She loved to dress up for Halloween, to prepare for family gatherings with her Sr. Camillus, and to make the occasional oddball and lighthearted requests of Leadership, like buying the local Dairy Queen as a new ministry.
Sister Corona was preceded in death by her parents, six brothers, and one sister. She is survived by two brothers, Leonard and Herman Bayer; three sisters, Ginny Klein, Martina Young and Joan Payne; two sisters in law, Mary and Kathy, and numerous nieces and nephews.
A Vigil Service was held on April 28, 2020, and the Mass of Christian Burial was held on April 29, 2020. Sr. Corona Bayer was buried at the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery in Great Bend, KS.
Memorial gifts in Sr. Corona’s memory may be submitted securely online or sent to the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Office of Mission Advancement, 2320 Airport Dr, Columbus, OH 43219.
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To view a printable PDF copy of Sr. Corona’s memorial, please click here.