A funeral Mass for Loretto Sister Roseanne (formerly Sister Rose Maura) Thornton was celebrated Oct. 10 at the Church of the Seven Dolors on the grounds of Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky.
Sister Roseanne served for nearly four decades as a kitchen and nurse’s assistant and as an educator. She died Oct. 7 at Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary. She was 78.
Born in Denver, she entered the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross in 1959 from Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lakewood, Colo. She was received into the Sisters of Loretto in 1960 and made her first vows in 1962 and her final vows in 1967. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in education, in 1964 from Webster College (now University) in Webster Groves.
In the St. Louis Archdiocese, at the Loretto Center in Webster Groves, Sister Roseanne performed community service from 1977-81, worked as a kitchen assistant from 1981-89 and served as a nurse’s assistant from 1989-2009.
Elsewhere, Sister Roseanne taught at schools in Colorado, Illinois and Kentucky. She served as a nurse’s aide at Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary from 1971-76. Sister Roseanne moved to Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in 2010.
Sister Roseanne is survived by two brothers, David Thornton of Basehor, Kan., and Bill Thornton of Buena Vista, Colo.; and two sisters, Kay Lewis of Bennett, Colo., and Rita Talbot of Longmont, Colo. Burial was in the Loretto Motherhouse Cemetery.
