A Mass of Christian Burial for Sister Damian Wetzel, DC, was celebrated April 13 in the Marian Chapel at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. Sister Damian died April 1 at The Sarah Community. She was 91 years old.
Sister Damian (baptized Mary Lee) was born Nov. 18, 1931, in Biloxi, Mississippi. She was one of two girls born to Milton James and Vivian Hyacinth (Tew) Wetzel. Her father, an architect and builder, relocated his family to New Orleans when she was 4 years old.
Sister Damian entered the Daughters of Charity in Normandy in December 1953. Following initial formation and having earned her nursing diploma from Hotel Dieu School of Nursing in New Orleans, she was missioned to St. Mary Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1955 to serve as a medical/surgical head nurse (1955-57).
Sister Damian earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1959 from Marillac College in Normandy. She then was missioned to DePaul Hospital in St. Louis for orientation to become an operating room supervisor. She served in this capacity for four years at St. Mary Hospital in Evansville, Indiana, and was then missioned to Montgomery, Alabama, to serve as a nursing instructor (1964-67) and as director of nursing service (1967-69). In 1965, while serving in Montgomery, Sister Damian was witness to the civil rights demonstrations and march from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1972, after earning her master’s in health care administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and completing her residency at St. Vincent Medical Center in New York, Sister Damian served as an adjunct professor at Tulane University in New Orleans (1972-74). She was an administrator in hospitals in New Orleans, and Austin and Dallas, Texas (1972-85). From 1985 until 1987, she was senior vice president of the Daughters of Charity National Health System West Central Region in St. Louis. She was provincial treasurer for the Daughters of Charity in St. Louis (1987-99), coordinating the sale of the Daughters’ provincial house and other buildings in Normandy to the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
For 10 years beginning in 2004, Sister Damian assisted her senior sisters at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, also serving as an ombudsman and advocate for the elderly and disabled at Parkwood Nursing Home in Maryland Heights. In 2017, she entered the ministry of prayer at The Sarah Community, where she served until the time of her death.
Sister Damian was preceded in death by her parents and her brother-in-law, Edwin Sullivan. She is survived by her sister, Colleen Sullivan; a nephew, Richard E. (Susan) Sullivan; two nieces, Mary Lee (Raoul) Rubio and Karen S. (Bill) McCrossen; seven great-nieces and six great-great nieces and nephews; many friends; and her fellow Daughters in community.
Burial was in Marillac Cemetery in Normandy.
