Remembrances
The prayer card for Loretto’s deceased members reads, “Gracious God, may they live forever in the splendor of your light and life in the company of all the saints.” We know that they do, but it’s good to say it. View all Obituaries.
In a letter dated Aug. 13, 1986, Co-membership Coordinator Mary Fran Lottes wrote to the Executive Committee, “I recommend that Jim Funk be accepted for co-membership. … Jim was educated by the Sisters of Loretto at St. Patrick School in El Paso. He is a co-worker and close friend of Leticia Lopez, who became a…
Read More
Sister Frances Weber was born Cornelia Frances Weber in Freeport, Texas, one of four children of Roland Emile Weber and Elizabeth Mary Kleinpeter, both Louisianans by birth. To her parents and her siblings, Helen, Joe and James, she was Connie. She first came to know the Sisters of Loretto when her mother enrolled her in school…
Read More
Lois Ann Gohl was born the fifth child of William August Julius Gohl, of St. Paul, Minn., and Rose Caroline Woerner Gohl of St. Louis. Their large family home was in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, where Ann attended the public grade and high schools. With these bare-bones facts, we pick up Ann’s own account…
Read More
(Author’s Note on Kay Lane SL: Kay left us nothing written about herself. But she was a great storyteller. What follows here are the facts from Kay’s personnel record, embellished with the memories of her novitiate classmates, friends with whom she lived and worked, and especially her close friend, Kathleen Tighe SL.) If Kay Lane were…
Read More
Author’s Note: This remembrance of Sister Marietta Goy draws heavily on the report of an interview of Marietta done in 2008 by Kathleen O’Malley. Additional material is from Marietta’s personnel file. When Marietta Goy came into the world she was baptized Geraldine. She grew up in the farming community of Sublette, Ill., as the oldest…
Read More
Editor’s Note: Our thanks to Martha Fly’s nephew, David Schoeni, for sharing this obituary with Loretto. Martha Marie Fly, age 75, died peacefully in her sleep on Oct. 30, after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease and post-polio syndrome. A memorial service will be take place 3 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Loretto…
Read More
Rita Hurtt was the third of four children of Arthur and Gertrude Hurtt of Pagedale, on the inner ring of St. Louis suburbs where families had large yards and gardens. Rita tells us something about her family and early childhood in a small essay she wrote titled “Three Cheers forChildhood”: “Being young and carefree as…
Read More
A year ago, Mary Katherine Hammett’s younger brother, Johnny, wasn’t able to attend her 75th jubilee. So Johnny and his wife, Lois, wrote out and sent a collection of their memories and these give us the beginning of the story of Mary Katherine’s life. Mary Katherine was born on May 20, 1925, in Colorado Springs, Colo.,…
Read More
“What a kind and generous person!” That is the most frequent description of Barb Light. She was always present when needed, agreeable to do anything to help —transportation to and from the airport, serve on a hospitality team, work with Loretto members on health care, and many other services. She was always cheerful, funny and…
Read More
Editor’s Note: The following remembrance was prepared by Loretto Co-member Mercy Sister Alicia Zapata and Vicki Schwartz SL. It contains excerpts from Pearl’s autobiography, along with contributions from Mary Jean Friel CoL, Marian McAvoy SL and Marlene Spero SL. A recording of her funeral may be viewed here. In her autobiography written in 1980 Pearl…
Read More
Author’s Note: The following is drawn in large measure from a remembrance by Margaret Blessum, the youngest of the Blessum family, in celebration of her older sister, Joan. It was delivered by Margaret at the service before Joan’s burial in Louisiana. There were 10 children in the family of Ray Benjamin and Maynelle Stevenson Blessum. …
Read More
Maureen Frances McCormack was born in St. Louis, the third of four daughters born to John Clement McCormack of Waukon, Iowa, and Ozzara Deluhery of Los Angeles. Maureen’s older sisters, Janet and Jean, were twins barely a year older than Maureen; their youngest sister Mary Beth arrived six years after Maureen. Although Maureen was baptized…
Read More