Sister Linda Sue was born in Springfield to Norman and Hazel Shearburn Turner. She joined the Catholic Church at St. Sebastian Church, Waverly, at the age of 19.
She attended Illinois State University and Los Angeles City College and was employed first at Franklin Life in Springfield for three years and then as a long-distance operator for General Telephone, Jacksonville.
After moving to Los Angeles, she worked for more than eight years at the Los Angeles Branch office of Aetna, in the life and health insurance division, then accepted a job offer in the Los Angeles Office of the Canada-based Manufacturers Financial Group, working for a total of 14 ½ years in the insurance industry.
In 1996 she felt called to return home to Illinois and lived with her parents until she joined the Dominicans in 1997 and made her first profession in 2000.
Her first year of ministry was at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights. After which she studied at Aquinas Institute of Theology, earning a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies in 2003.
For the next year she served as campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Hammond, La., before returning to Illinois and to pastoral work at St. Ambrose Parish, Godfrey, Ill, 2004-2007. She was stationed at Our Saviour Parish, Jacksonville for two years, and then joined the library and archive staff at Sacred Heart Convent, 2009-2011.
She became director of religious education at Saints Mary and Joseph Parish, Carlinville, and St. Raymond Parish, in Raymond, Ill., 2011-2013, and then chaplain at St. Francis Hospital, Litchfield, 2013-2014.
From 2014-2022 Sister Linda Sue taught part-time at St. Patrick School, Springfield, and starting in 2018, began her role as part-time pastoral associate at the Church of the Little Flower in Springfield, a position which she continues to hold.
Her family will join her for a celebration at Sacred Heart Convent in late April.
No hum-hawing
“As I reflect on my religious life, it is clear that there was no hum-hawing around,” Sister Linda Sue said. “God called in a very St. Paul manner, and I answered yes, out of Love for God. Here I am, with The I Am 30 years later, 25 years in professed religious life. There have been difficult times, good times, and fabulous times. The thing that always kept me moving forward was my yes to God. To do anything differently would have meant that I would be walking away from what God wanted me to do. I could never do that. t was that clear-cut, always. The sacrifices have been small compared to His Sacrifice.”
