Sister Denise Diebold

KELSO, Mo. -- Sister Denise Diebold, 85, died Thursday, July 25, 2002, at the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters Motherhouse in Wheaton, Ill., her religious community.

A remembrance service and rosary prayer service was held at the convent July 28. A funeral Mass was celebrated July 29 at Our Lady of the Angels Motherhouse Chapel. Interment followed in Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton.

Born April 29, 1917, at Kelso, daughter of Dennis and Margaret Diebold, her birth name was Josephine Leona Diebold. She was the ninth of their 11 children.

She entered religious life as a Franciscan novice Oct. 19, 1941. She professed perpetual vows May 19, 1947, taking the religious name Sister Denis, which was later changed to Sister Denise.

Sister Denise's 61 years of religious vocation were spent as a nurse serving her community's health care institutions in four states. She earned bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis.

Skilled in both administering and teaching practical nursing arts, Sister Denise worked in hospitals and nursing homes in Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. She worked as an infection control nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau from April 1976 to September 1982.

Sister Denise was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers, and three sisters, including a birth sister, Sister Flora (Mary Ann) Diebold, also a member of Wheaton Franciscan Sisters.

Survivors include three sisters, Caroline Seiler of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Philomena Buhs of St. Louis, Sister Julianne (Otillia) Diebold of Wheaton Franciscan Sisters in Illinois; and numerous nieces and nephews.