A funeral Mass for Sister Loretta Luecke was celebrated June 3 at the chapel of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood motherhouse in O'Fallon. Sister Loretta died May 22 in Anchorage, Alaska. She was 82 and a member of the Precious Blood sisters for 61 years.
Born in New Haven, Sister Loretta entered the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood as a postulant in 1952; she made her first profession of vows in 1955 and her final vows in 1958. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1971 from the College of St. Mary in Omaha, Neb.
Sister Loretta was an elementary school teacher and principal for many years. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, she taught at Sacred Heart in Ozora, St. Agnes in Bloomsdale, St. Patrick in Wentzville, Assumption in O'Fallon and St. Paul in Fenton. She was a principal and teacher at Sacred Heart in Florissant, Assumption in New Haven, and was a principal at Holy Rosary in Warrenton and St. Lawrence the Martyr in Bridgeton. She also taught elsewhere in Missouri, Illinois and Minnesota.
She moved to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1990 where she served as a director of religious education, pastoral associate, parish administrator, and director of pastoral life and parish life at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish. In 2002, she became the parish administrator at Holy Cross Parish in Anchorage.
She is survived by two sisters, Barbara Grannemann of New Haven and Rosemary Hubenthal of Leslie. Burial was at the convent cemetery in O'Fallon.