Sr Charitas Steinke OP

January 6, 1910 - November 9, 2004

Sister Charitas Steinke, 94, died Nov. 9 at the Dominican Sisters’ convent infirmary in Great Bend. She was born Jan. 6, 1910, in Clinton, Okla., as Northelma Marie Steinke. The daughter of Anthony and Rosa Leis Steinke, she entered the Dominican Sisters’ Community on June 13, 1924, and pronounced her first vows on Aug. 18, 1927. She celebrated 75 years of religious profession in 2002. Sister Charitas began her ministerial life as an elementary teacher in Kansas schools. For a year she also taught in the sisters’ high school in Great Bend. She is most remembered as a medical record librarian, a work she began in 1940. After completing her studies for registered medical librarian she worked from 1950 to 1989 in St. Rose Hospital’s and Central Kansas Medical Center’s medical library. She also served CKMC as part-time medical staff coordinator before her retirement in 2000.

Survivors include two brothers, Urban Steinke of Lakin and Sylvester Steinke of Wichita; and two sisters, Mildred Sexton of Kingman and Eileen Williams of Bryant, Ark.

Sister Charitas’s body was brought to the hospitality area of the Dominican Chapel of the Plains, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, where it will lie in state until the Liturgy of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. Nov. 12, with the Rev. Gerald Hammeke officiating. A wake service will be held at 7 p.m. Nov.11. Burial will be at the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery. Both the wake and the funeral will be held at the convent. Bryant Funeral Home in Great Bend is in charge of the arrangements. Friends may call at the convent today and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Friday morning until the time of service.

¨ Wake Reflection

¨ Wake Homily

¨ Funeral Homily

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