GARDEN CITY, Kan. — Sister Gertrude “Trudy” Tanner, OP, died May 19. She was 78.
Sr. Tanner was born April 22, 1940, in Newark, Ohio, the daughter of Ivan and Esther (Schlingerman) Tanner. She entered religious life with the Dominican Sisters of Peace in 1958. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Dominican College in 1965 and taught at several different Catholic schools in Ohio, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. She earned her Master of Education degree from the University of Dayton in 1973; her C.P.E. Certificate from Riverside Methodist Hospital in 1977; and her Master of Pastoral Ministry degree from Catholic University in 1982. In the Diocese of Davenport, she served as pastoral associate and director of adult faith formation for St. Patrick Parish in Ottumwa and St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Bloomfield.
In 2013 she moved to Garden City where she envisioned a place where trafficked women and their children could be safe. Her dream was realized in the spring of 2018 with the opening of the Oasis of Peace Center.
A funeral Mass was celebrated May 23 at St. Dominic Parish in Garden City. A Mass and burial will take place at the Dominican Sisters of Peace Chapel Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.
Memorials can be made to Dominican Sisters of Peace or Oasis of Peace in care of Garnand Funeral Home, Garden City.
