A funeral Mass for Sister Leonor Denzon was celebrated April 4 in the chapel at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. Sister Leonor died March 27 at The Sarah Community. She was 86 and had been a Franciscan Sister of Mary for 42 years.
Leonor R. Denzon was born March 2, 1936, in Sogod Leyte d’Sur in the Philippines, the oldest of eight children born to Policarpo Abella and Consuelo R. (Rosales) Denzon. She earned an associate of arts from Divine Word University in Leyte (1960) and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Centro Escholer University in Manila (1963). For several years, she was an assistant instructor in chemistry at Divine Word University.
Upon moving to the United States, she took classes at Saint Louis University. At the advice of a priest there, she began working at St. Mary’s Hospital nearby. She then worked as an analytical chemist for Bluline Pharmaceutical Company for eight years.
She entered the Sisters of St. Mary on Sept. 6, 1975, and professed final vows on Aug. 15, 1980. She worked as a nurse assistant at St. Mary’s Hospital (1977-81). She studied at St. Mary’s College in O’Fallon (1981-83). From 1983 to 1990, she served as a nurse assistant at the motherhouse, then as building manager and receptionist (1990-91).
She provided elder care for Jefferson Home Health, visited patients at St. Clare Meadows Care Center, and was a home health aide at Home Health United in Baraboo, Wisconsin (1995-96). She served as a certified nurse assistant (CNA) at Jefferson Home Health and Hospital (1996-98). She also served as a CNA in the Alzheimer’s unit at Maryville Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Maryville, Missouri (1998-99).
Upon returning to St. Louis, she provided home health care through CSJ Care from 2001-07. She volunteered in the Neonatal ICU at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and also provided pastoral care and volunteered in the St. Mary’s Health Center library. In August 2010, Sister Leonor moved to the The Sarah Community.
She is survived by her sisters, Victoria Allenegui of Glendale, California, and Marylou Battad of the Philippines. Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
