Sister Patricia Ann Ressel

KELSO, Mo. -- Sister Patricia Ann Ressel, 86, died Friday, Jan. 2, 2009, at the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Northbrook, Ill.

She was born Mildred Angeline Ressel on March 1, 1922, in Kelso, daughter of Charles and Mary Katherine Essner Ressel. She grew up on the family farm and attended St. Augustine Grade School in Kelso.

Ressel was received into the novitiate in Techny, Ill., on July 6, 1942, and given the name Sr. Patricia Ann. She graduated from nursing school in 1949 from St. Therese Hospital in Waukegan, Ill.

After her final vows in 1950, Sister Patricia Ann returned to St. Therese to work as a nurse for about a year. She then worked five years in various clinics in Ghana. Sr. Patricia Ann then returned to the United States to study midwifery at the Catholic Maternity Institute Inc. in Santa Fe, N.M. She completed her studies in 1957 and then went back to Ghana, where she served a total of 25 years.

When she returned to the United States, she worked in the staffer program for young women in crisis pregnancies at St. Therese Medical Center in Waukegan for 10 years.

Survivors include a sister, Sister Sienna (Rita Ressel).

She was preceded in death by four brothers and four sisters.

Funeral Mass was held Jan. 6. Burial was in St. Mary Cemetery in Techny.

Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home in Chicago was in charge of arrangements.