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Sr Mary Eleanor Penka |
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June 14, 1916 ~ January 30, 2008 Sr Mary Eleanor Penka, 91, died Wednesday, January 30, 2008, in the Dominican Sisters’ convent infirmary, Great Bend, Kansas. Born June 14, 1916, in Odin, KS, as Dorothy Penka, Sr Mary Eleanor was the daughter of the late Emil and Hedwig Heger Penka. She entered the Dominican Sisters’ community July 18, 1931, and pronounced her first vows August 20, 1934. She celebrated seventy years of religious profession in 2004. Sr Mary Eleanor spent most of her ministerial life as a religious in domestic capacities. Early in her religious life she was a homemaker on the sisters’ missions. She worked in the kitchens of St. Rose Hospital, Great Bend (now Central Kansas Medical Center), and St. Catherine Hospital, Garden City KS. Since 1952 she has lived and worked in Great Bend serving at St. Rose Hospital and later at Central Kansas Medical Center as sacristan, supervisor of housekeeping, aide, ward clerk, and in Central Service. Before her last illness (1993) she worked in the medical center laundry and at the convent as a seamstress. Sr Mary Eleanor is survived by one brother and one sister: Julius, and Helen Kalina, both of Hoisington KS; and her Community of Dominican Sisters. Sr Mary Eleanor’s body will be brought to the hospitality area of the Dominican Chapel of the Plains, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, on Thursday, January 31, 2008, at 4:00 p.m., where it will lie in state until the Liturgy of Christian Burial at 10: 00 a.m., Saturday, February 2, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., with Rev. Marvin Reif presiding. A wake service will be held Friday, February 1, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. Burial will be in the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery. Both the wake and the funeral are at the convent (see chapel address above). Memorials in honor of Sr Mary Eleanor for the Dominican Sisters’ Retirement Fund may be sent to: Dominican Sisters, Office of Mission and Ministry, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, KS 67530-3692. Bryant Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Friends may call at the convent from Friday, February 1, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
