The eldest of three daughters, she was born to Eleanor (Rahn) and John Ewertz in St. Louis on Feb. 24, 1939. She was baptized at St. Francis de Sales Church and named Eleanor Mathilda. When Eleanor was 4 years old, the family moved to Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in St. Louis, where the School Sisters of Notre Dame taught her. She attended Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, where the SSNDs also taught.

During a silent retreat in her senior year, she realized God was calling her to religious life. She entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis on Aug. 29, 1957. She was received into the novitiate July 29, 1958, and given the name Mary Therese Lisieux. She was thrilled to receive this name as she had a great devotion to the “Little Flower” and a great love for foreign missions. She professed first vows on July 30, 1959, and final vows on July 30, 1965. Later, she returned to her baptismal name.

Sister Eleanor earned a bachelor’s degree in speech from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1962 and a master’s degree in elementary administration and a reading specialist certificate from the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas, in 1973.

She taught elementary students and was a principal at schools in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, and was a choir director and organist at several parishes. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, she was named principal at St. Andrew School in Lemay in 1976. Three years later, she was asked to serve as superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Jefferson City.

During a 30-day retreat in 1985, Sister Eleanor felt called to minister in and volunteer in Africa. She arrived in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in September 1986. For the next 25 years, West Africa would become her second home. She taught at the Women’s Teachers College in Port Loko for three years; spent one year at the Yengema Secondary School; opened a new mission at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Mange Bureh; and was one of the first pastoral administrators in Sierra Leone. In Mange Bureh, she oversaw eight primary schools. In the 1990s, she twice had to evacuate the country because of civil war. Sister Eleanor was later assigned to teach English at the Sunyani Secondary School in Ghana and served as the SSND vocation director, retreat and spiritual director and postulant directress.

In 2005, she returned to the United States for three years, where she worked as a patient ambassador at Saint Louis University Hospital and taught English as a second language in the Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Program in St. Louis.

In 2008, she responded to a call to return to Sierra Leone and teach at Fatima Institute, the newly established Catholic University of Makeni, in Makeni. She also served as chaplain at the university, was a spiritual director and directed retreats at the Leicester Retreat Center in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In July 2014, the SSND had to evacuate Sierra Leone a third time — this time due to an Ebola outbreak. She spent several months teaching English in the novitiate in Sunyani, Ghana. With the expiration of her visa, she chose to return to St. Louis in January of 2015.

After a year of community service at Theresa Center in St. Louis, she was invited to minister part time as a retreat and spiritual director in the Jefferson City Diocese. She also continued to do volunteer service at Theresa Center and The Sarah Community. As her health began to fail, she was missioned to Veronica House at The Sarah Community in January 2020 and to Anna House in January 2023.

Sister Eleanor is survived by her sister, Virginia (Mike) Hughes; relatives; her sisters in community; SSND associates and friends. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa cemetery.