Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Mass of Christian Burial for Sister of Charity Mary Bertha Kelley was celebrated on July 23 in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the congregation’s Delhi Township motherhouse. Sister Mary Bertha, 94, died on July 18 at Mother Margaret Hall. She was a Sister of Charity for 69 years.

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Sister Mary Bertha earned a bachelor of science degree in nutrition from the College of Mount St. Joseph in 1944. She served as a hospital dietician in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, along with Denver, Colo., Detroit, Mich., and Santa Fe, N.M. She began her ministry at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where she served in until 1946, and again from 1948-52. In the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Sister Mary Bertha served at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton from 1957-61, and Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati from 1969-86. She also volunteered as a dietician in the mid-1980s at St. Joseph Home of Cincinnati.

Sister Mary Bertha served in retirement ministry at Whitfield House in Clifton for several years until her official retirement to the Sisters of Charity ministry of prayer. She also volunteered as a guide at the information desk in the Outpatient Department of Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. In addition, she volunteered at the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Over-the-Rhine, as well as helping the Little Sisters of the Poor with parties for residents of St. Paul’s Archbishop Leibold Home for the Aged.

Interment was in the motherhouse cemetery.