Remembering the Mother Theresa of Southern Illinois

The loving legacy of a past Lumen Christi Award finalist

A community like Cairo, Illinois, needed an apostle of hope like Sherry Miller. As the director of the Daystar Community Program, a ministry of the Diocese of Belleville, she was a “boots on the ground” leader in one of the most economically challenged areas in the country. 

When she passed away in 2022 at the age of 75, it was a heartbreaking loss for the thousands of lives she touched through 30 years of total dedication to the people of Southern Illinois. 

Miller, pictured below on the right, began at the Daystar Community Program as an outreach coordinator in 1991, and she became its director in 2006.

She was nominated for the Lumen Christi Award three times and was named a finalist in 2011.

Throughout these years, her job never became any easier as the economic situation worsened in Cairo. The town’s last grocery store closed in 2015.  

Undeterred, Miller forged ahead, offering a mobile food pantry and thrift store that provided clothes and household products. She helped individuals in need with housing, transportation, utilities, health care and any other emergency assistance.

Catholic Extension Society has supported this ministry, including helping to purchase a new van for the mobile food pantry.  

Not long before her passing, the diocese’s newspaper, the Belleville Messenger, asked about her thoughts on retirement. “There is too much to do,” she said.

She continued,

These are my people. I love helping people.”

That is what she did until her very last days on this earth.  

She lived the Gospel

Miller did not shy away from a challenge. And she experienced no shortage of them. 

During the nearly 800-day Illinois Budget Impasse that began in 2016, state-run food pantries and social service agencies in the region were shut down. Under Miller’s direction, Daystar expanded its services to help people from surrounding counties who suddenly lost all assistance.

Additionally, in the wake of several devastating floods in Cairo, which is located at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Miller refused to leave until she knew everyone was safely evacuated. She and her Daystar staff transported seniors and the homebound to higher ground. 

Upon her passing, the Belleville Messenger published these words from her longtime friend and colleague Deacon Corby Valentine: 

“Some preach the Gospel. Sherry lived the Gospel,” he said. “Some of us use these words at the dismissal during the Concluding Rite: ‘Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life.’ Sherry Miller is a perfect example of someone who did glorify the Lord by her life. We are all challenged to imitate her caring and giving spirit.” 

Sherry Miller’s story is part of our series on the courage and conviction of women in the Catholic Church. Read more here.

Catholic Extension Society works in solidarity with people to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America. Please support our mission!

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