Anne McSweeney

Anne C. McSweeney, age 66, passed away on July 17, 2023 at Methodist West Hospital in West Des Moines surrounded by her loving family. She bravely battled endometrial carcinosarcoma for nearly two years. Anne said that what made her life worth living was family, joy, and justice.

She was born in Putnam, CT on May 11, 1957, to William and Anne (Bulman) McSweeney. As a child, she lived in Connecticut and later in Huntington, Long Island. When she was 11 years old, her family moved to Kansas. As the oldest of five, her siblings often looked to her for support and guidance.

For two summers in high school, she participated in the Amigos program, administering vaccinations in remote villages in Honduras and Colombia. After graduating from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in 1975, she attended Boston College and graduated in 1979 with a degree in Political Science. She then moved to Crown Heights in Brooklyn, NY to assist organizing tenants with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Upon finishing JVC, she moved to Worcester, MA and continued to do organizing work through the Urban Ministry Commission of the Worcester Catholic Diocese.

In 1984, she joined the Maryknoll Lay Missioners Program and went to Bolivia in January 1985 to attend their language school. While there, she met her future husband, Mark. In 1985, both Anne and Mark happened to move to Nicaragua. She joined a team of two Sisters to start a new initiative in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Managua, Nicaragua, working with youth. She was later named the Coordinator of the Maryknoll work in Nicaragua.

In 1989, Anne married Mark Lester in the same neighborhood of Managua where she worked. After finishing her time with Maryknoll, she worked as an administrator of Teyocoyani, a team of Nicaraguan pastoral agents. Later, she became a middle and high school teacher at the American Nicaraguan School, where she earned a Master’s in Secondary Education from Fitchburg State College while also teaching. She was then asked to teach future teachers in the same program.

No matter what job Anne took on, she was always intentional about responding to the needs of her children, often choosing jobs where she could spend more time with them. Anne was very passionate about education, which she not only did professionally, but also by facilitating educational experiences for her children and their friends. By accompanying them in the discovery process, she helped instill a passion for learning. Even as children, Anne made them feel respected and heard.

In 1999, Anne started working as an independent consultant, providing interpretation and translation services for non-profit development organizations, including CARE, Catholic Relief Services, UNICEF, Acción Médica Cristiana, the Local Development Fund, among others. Augsburg University´s Center for Global Education and Experience frequently contracted her to design, organize and accompany experiential educational seminars for university students and professors, even doing so for a group of professors from her alma mater, Boston College.

Because family was so important to Anne, she frequently travelled from Managua to visit relatives in Kansas, Boston, Sarasota, Atlanta, and Kentucky. In 2021, Anne and Mark moved from Nicaragua to Des Moines to be closer to their family. Anne loved working on crossword puzzles with her daughter via Zoom and, even while ill, looked for ways to spend time with her son, daughter-in-law, and her grandson. She was very thoughtful about supporting her grandson´s development through play and experiences. Anne spoke daily with her mother and kept in frequent contact with her siblings.

Anne is survived by her mother, Anne Bulman McSweeney; her spouse, Mark Lester and their children: Marcos Roque Lester McSweeney (Elizabeth Patten) of Des Moines, IA and Maura Renée Lester McSweeney (Regan McKinnon) of Boston, MA; as well as her grandson, Xavier Thomas Lester Patten. She is also survived by her siblings: William McSweeney (Monica), Siobhan White (Don), Arthur McSweeney (Edana), and Sean McSweeney (Tricia); and many nieces and nephews, several of them godchildren. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Ana Xiomara, and her father, William L. McSweeney.

A funeral mass will be held on August 18 at 10am at St Agnes Parish, 5250 Mission Road, Roeland Park, KS 66205. The mass will also be lived streamed for those interested on the parish's youtube channel. A reception will be held after the mass in the Church basement, where there will be an opportunity for people to share stories about Anne. Those interested in participating online can do so by registering to access the zoom link. zoom link

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in loving memory of Anne may be sent to Fe y Alegria in Nicaragua which supports education in marginalized communities in Nicaragua, and to Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice which provides support to migrants in Iowa. Both organizations were important to Anne.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com

Print