A memorial Mass for Sister Rebecca Wright, FSM, will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, April 30, at Mother of Good Counsel Home in Northwoods. Sister Rebecca died April 10. She was 93.
Clara Jo Wright was born Aug. 12, 1932, in Belleville, Illinois, one of four children born to Wallace H. and Norma (Kohl) Wright. After a year of discernment, Clara Jo entered the Sisters of St. Mary on March 7, 1951. She received the name Sister Marie Rebecca, and she professed final vows Sept. 8, 1956.
Sister Rebecca earned her bachelor’s in nursing in 1957 and her master’s in hospital administration in 1962, both through Saint Louis University.
Upon completing her nursing training, she was appointed surgical head nurse (1957-58) and night supervisor (1958-60) at St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis. Completing her master’s, she did her administrative residency in Duluth, Minnesota (1961-62). She directed nursing service at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin (1962-64), then served as assistant administrator at St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis (1964-67). From 1967 to 1985, she was chief executive officer at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison. She was elected to leadership as a general councilor during the reunification of the Sisters of St. Mary and the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville, Missouri, as the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (1985-86). After a year’s sabbatical, she served as chief executive officer and president of Benedictine Health System in Duluth (1987-90). She was a consultant and diocesan coordinator in Madison (1992-94) as well as a nurse and consultant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she moved in 2010.
Sister Rebecca embraced the identity and mission of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary through her service to society’s marginalized people and through her earth-friendly bicycling on her daily commutes.
She requested a green burial and was buried on April 15.
