Remembrance of the Life of Sister Rita (formerly Sister Mary Ann Frederick) Bruegenhagen SL

Sister Rita (formerly Sister Mary Ann Frederick) Bruegenhagen SL died peacefully the afternoon of March 22, 2025, at Loretto Living Center, with Loretto members, including Irene Doody, her pew partner, by her side. Rita was in the 68th year of her Loretto commitment. 

Rita Catherine Bruegenhagen loved the place where she grew up. Born in St. Louis, Rita spent her childhood in the heart of St. Louis City on a street with no outlet. She was surrounded by a large yard where she played with her older siblings, John and Sis, and where many of her Germanic family gathered. Her father, Fred, rose at early hours to deliver milk; her mother, Teresa, kept house and family and imbued Rita with practical wisdom. In her recent years of retirement at Loretto Motherhouse, Rita would often say that her childhood home and city streets were still her most favorite places to be.

St. Engelbert Grade School was near enough to walk; a candy counter at the corner grocery made the walk pleasant. The School Sisters of Notre Dame were the teachers, beginning a lifelong friendship which would lead Rita to move in with the SSNDs at their provincial house when the Loretto Center closed in 2016. For high school, Rita chose Laboure, an all-girls school taught by the Daughters of Charity. But during her freshman year, DeAndreis High School, just two blocks from her home, announced it would turn co-ed in the following September. Rita wrote about her change of schools: “My first association with the Sisters of Loretto was at DeAndreis School … [where they] started teaching [when] I came as a sophomore.” Of her teachers at DeAndreis, Rita wrote, “They were fine teachers, approachable and happy – Mary Elizabeth, Janice, Joanna Marie and Emanuel among others.” 

Graduating in 1955, Rita worked a year as a secretary at Monsanto Chemical Co. before requesting admittance to Loretto. She asked to join because of her “love of God and desire to help others.”  She entered on Sept. 8, 1956, and when she received the habit May 24 the next spring, she took the name Sister Ann Frederick in her father’s honor. Rita formed lifelong friendships during those years in the Novitiate and the House of Studies. While at Webster College, she began the business administration studies which became her lifelong professional contribution to Loretto and many other Church institutions. Surprisingly, while her undergraduate minor was business, Rita’s major was French!

From the House of Studies, Rita was assigned to return to the Motherhouse, to work alongside Treasurer Ellen Mary Godfrey as her Assistant. There were perks to being at the Motherhouse, Rita wrote:  “In 1962, I was living at the Motherhouse and helping Sister Ellen Mary Godfrey … teacher par excellence. That was the year of the Sesquicentennial and there was a big celebration. We made a pilgrimage to some of the other places in the area which were part of Loretto’s history. What really impressed me and made me feel like a part of ongoing history was to hear Sisters Candida Cecil and Theodosia Cecil (twins) tell about the celebration they took part in at the time of the 1912 Centennial of the Sisters of Loretto.” 

Rita liked the bookkeeping work and the local history, but was not happy on the farm. She spent her summers at Notre Dame University and in 1967 was awarded a master’s in business administration. Meanwhile, five years on the farm had been enough, so at the first opportunity for sisters to choose their own work, Rita asked for a change. With Ellen Mary’s encouragement, Rita was appointed Southern Province Treasurer, with an office in El Paso, Texas.  In 1970, when the provincial system was replaced by the new Loretto government under President Helen Sanders, Rita’s fondness for El Paso led her to accept the bookkeeper job for the school and convent at Loretto Academy, positions she filled for five years. More history was included in the post. Rita wrote, “In 1974 I was living at Loretto Academy in El Paso. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the school. … It was interesting to be there with Sisters who were in El Paso when the school first opened. Sister Ethelbert Owens is a name I remember, and Sister Clementia Rogner was also there when the Academy opened.

“Another link with history for me was to talk to Sister Faber Wheat when she was in her middle 90s (about 1972). She told me that she was the last living person to have lived with Mother Catherine [Connor who had been] deposed as Superior General [in 1896]. Sister Faber [had just been sent to Santa Fe] and was very impressed by Mother Catherine. She said that there was never any indication from her that she had ever been Superior General. There was neither hurt, sadness, nor superiority – nothing. Sister Faber spoke of Mother Catherine as a holy person.” 

Rita’s delight in historic details was captured in her short autobiography in 1977, written near the end of two years as office staff at Loretto in Kansas City.  She concludes with a comment on the weather: “At the present time I am living with Sisters Marlene Spero and Susan Swain. …  Last week we did not have school on Tuesday or Thursday, and we’re not in school today. … All schools in the area are closed … because of a gas shortage in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. All residents are asked to turn down their thermostats to 55 or 60 because of the gas shortage. It has been below zero for the last three days.”

Rita had moved to Kansas City from El Paso in 1975, primarily to help Loretto in KC get ready for an important evaluation by the North Central Association for Schools. She also served as assistant principal and business teacher and kept the books. Rita moved again after two years, to Denver. Three years as financial and secretarial support to the Archdiocese of Denver Marriage Preparation Program were followed by four years as Finance Director for the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education. Rita designed accounting systems, assisted budget preparation for eight departments and three high schools, and coordinated planning and finances for four annual conferences of 1,000 persons each. In the midst of this demanding professional work in Denver, Rita faced illnesses in her family.

Rita’s father died in 1983, her brother John in 1987. Between those deaths, Rita moved once again, back to St. Louis. She had time with her brother and with her mother before her mother died in 1992; she drew closer than ever with her older sister, “Sis.”  Besides family, Rita had time to renew old friendships and make new friends among the many Loretto members in the St. Louis area. She reveled in the opportunities offered by St. Louis’s cultural events, historical museums and The Repertory Theater, housed at Webster University.

Rita briefly worked for the St Louis Archdiocese, but soon found a congenial place as finance manager at Incarnate Word Academy, where she worked for 10 years. Rita’s final work setting was equally congenial, 15 years at St. Peter Parish in Kirkwood, a suburb Rita called “an historic settlement on the outskirts of St. Louis.” Her stories about the individuals who dropped into the parish office could raise the hair on your head or make tears come to your eyes in sympathy or laughter.

Retiring from professional financial work in 2012, Rita kept right on being busy with volunteer positions, Loretto events, visiting retired friends at Loretto Center, being present in crucial ways as changes came, including the closing of the St. Louis Loretto Center. In 2020 Rita moved back to her Loretto roots at the Motherhouse, accepting the rural life gracefully but always ready for a trip to city streets. That was the year Covid began, difficult for all of us but perhaps Rita worst of all. Yet her matter-of-fact manner and droll humor remained intact, even as her health declined.

Rita’s boss at St. Peter’s might have spoken for all Loretto as well, in his farewell in the church bulletin: “Sister Rita! You are an absolutely wonderful person and [we are] certainly the better for your great presence. … You have challenged us. You have kept us honest. We always knew where you stood on any issue brought before you. You have made us better persons and we loved working and being … with you.” All of us thank you, Rita, and thank God for you.

A funeral Mass for Rita was celebrated in the Motherhouse church March 31, with the Rev. Pier Giorgio Dengler O.P. presiding. Traditional burial followed in Our Lady of Sorrows Cemetery, Loretto Motherhouse. A wake took place March 30 at the Motherhouse.

Please keep Rita, her loved ones and all her family in your prayers. May she rest in peace.