KENNEDY, Sister Mary Rita (Sister St. Leonard) G.S.I.C.

A Grey Sister of the Immaculate Conception, Pembroke Ontario, died in Pembroke on the 15^th. day of January, 2018 in the 80^th year of her religious life.  Left to mourn are the members of her Religious Community, her first cousin Sister Maureen Taylor G.S.I.C., nieces, nephews and many dear friends.    She was predeceased by her parents, William James Kennedy, and Mary Margaret Taylor, her brothers Joseph Taylor Kennedy and William James (Corky).  Sister Rita was born on May 11^th. 1920, in New Edinburgh, Ottawa.  She entered the Grey Sisters Community on March 17^th. 1938, pronouncing her final vows on August 5^th. 1943.Graduating from the Pembroke General Hospital School of Nursing in 1943, she remained there as a staff nurse for one year. Her next assignment led her to the General Hospital, Sault Ste. Marie, where she ministered in several areas, including Unit Supervisor, Nursing Science Instructor, Hospital Director of Nursing, and Director of St. Mary’s School of Nursing.   Sister Rita served in Sault Ste. Marie a total of twenty seven years, where she did much to elevate the quality of nursing education and to maintain the highest standards of nursing care provided. Her academic background included a BScN as well as a Master’s degree in Nursing from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.   As Director of St. Mary’s School of Nursing, she served on the first Ontario Council of the College of Nurses for a number of years, and as nursing education in Ontario evolved, she became the Director of the Algoma Regional School of Nursing (ARSN) and eventually the Sault College School of Nursing for a brief period. From 1974, Sister Rita served on the Grey Sister’s General Council until 1981, when she was appointed Administrator of St. Patrick’s Home for the Aged in Ottawa, ministering there for the next seven years. Following a well-deserved sabbatical at the Credo Program in Spokane, Washington, Sister Rita was assigned the position of Auditor for the Ottawa Ecclesiastical Tribunal for a period of four years.  In her later years, always generous and dedicated to the welfare of others, she worked as a volunteer at the Assumption Church, Bronson Centre, Island Lodge and St. Patrick’s Home, in Ottawa.  Her final years were lived peacefully but joyfully at Shalom Residence, Pembroke. Local arrangements entrusted to O’Sullivan funeral Home and Cremation Centre, 215 St. James St. Sault Ste. Marie 705-759-8456. Online condolences may be left at www.nevillefuneralhome.ca