Cookie Cart foundress Mercy Sister Jean Thuerauf died June 10 at Catholic Eldercare. She was 85. A Mass of Christian burial was held June 16. Born in Iowa, Sister Jean entered the Sisters of Mercy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, following high school. After teaching in Iowa, she moved to Minneapolis in the early 1970s to teach and work in adult education at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. In 1976, she began working in north Minneapolis and founded the Mercy Missionaries to help young people avoid or escape life on the streets. What began in her kitchen as a small cookie-selling business to teach skills to youth grew into the Cookie Cart, which provides youth employment training in north Minneapolis, with a St. Paul store scheduled to open in 2017.
