Sr. NemecA funeral Mass for Sister Laurita Joseph Nemec was celebrated Oct. 20 at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Laurita died Oct. 10 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 96 years old and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 80 years.
Born in St. Louis, Sister Laurita entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet on Feb. 11, 1941, and was received into the novitiate on Aug. 15, 1941. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Loretto Heights College (now part of Regis University) in Denver in 1959.
Sister Laurita was an educator, teaching nearly 50 years in a number of grade schools across the country.
In the 1940s, after serving at Nazareth Convent as sacristan and dining room worker, she had her first teaching assignments at Notre Dame de Lourdes and St. Vincent de Paul grade schools in St. Louis.
In the 1950s, she taught at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois; Nativity of Our Lord in Chicago; and St. Francis de Sales and St. Patrick in Denver. In the 1960s, she taught at St. Philip Neri in St. Louis; St. Joseph in Marietta, Georgia; Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kansas City, Missouri; and Our Lady of Lourdes in University City.
In the 1970s, she taught at St. Agnes and Holy Guardian Angels in St. Louis; Valle in Ste. Genevieve; and Our Lady of the Presentation in St. Louis. In the 1980s, she taught at St. Anthony of Padua and St. Margaret of Scotland in St. Louis. In the early 1990s, she continued to serve at St. Margaret of Scotland as a substitute teacher.
In 1995, Sister Laurita began 10 years of volunteer service at St. Alexius Hospital. She was an also aide for the St. Louis Province Archives from 1996 to 2004. Since 2005, she had resided at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis where she continued to carry out her ministry of prayer and presence.