Sister M. Coronato Manion, age 95, of Alliance, passed away Wednesday, June 25, 2008, at Marion Residence in Alliance.

A wake service was held at 7 pm on Friday, June 27, 2008 at the Marian Chapel in Alliance.

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by Fr. James Heithoff at 10 am on Saturday, June 28 at the Marian Chapel in Alliance.

Bates-Gould Funeral Home of Alliance was in charge of arrangements.

Sister Coronata was born May 4, 1913, in a sod house, three miles north of Hemingford, the first of 10 children of Will and Mae (Peters) Manion. She was named Mary Frances.

In 1931, she graduated from St. Agnes Academy and then taught for a year in a Sheridan County rural school. In the fall of 1932, she went to Stella Niagara, NY, to enter the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity. She was professed as Sister Mary Coronata in 1934.

After teaching at Columbus, Ohio, she went to Holy Rosary Mission at Pine Ridge, SD, in 1937 to teach in the elementary school. In 1944, she began training to be a laboratory technician and worked in hospitals owned by the Sisters in Minot, ND, Scottsbluff and Alliance. She also served as the administrator at St. Anthony's Hospital at O'Neill for a year.

She earned a bachelor of science degree from St. Mary's College at Leavenworth, KS, in 1958, and a master of arts degree from St. Thomas College, St. Paul, MN in 1967.

She began teaching in the high school at St. Francis Mission at St. Francis, SD, in 1964 and continued there until she retired in 1980, when she moved to Marian Residence.

She is survived by a brother, Maurice Manion of Chushing, OK; sisters, Eleanor Manion of Newport Beach, CA, Dorothy Kunzman of Alliance, and Donna Goldstedt of Chadron; numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, and her Franciscan Sisters.

She was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers, a sister and several nieces and nephews.

Memorials are suggested to Marian Residence of to Prairie Haven Hospice.