Sister Loretta WHITTY

WHITTY, GUYER, HEINZMAN, WHITE, BURKE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/18/2009 at 12:00:26

Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA)
June 12, 2002

Sister Loretta Whitty, RSM, 88, of Sacred Heart Convent, died Monday, June 10, 2002, in Queen of Angels Health Center, Sacred Heart Convent, following a lengthy illness. Services: 11 a.m. Thursday, Sacred Heart Chapel, by the Rev. Monsignor Cletus Hawes. Burial: Mount Calvary Cemetery. Friends may call from 2 to 8 p.m. today at the chapel, where a wake service begins at 7 p.m. Arrangements with Teahen Funeral Home.

In addition to the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Loretta is survived by two sisters, Eileen Guyer and Marcella Heinzman, both of Waterloo; and a brother, Leo Whitty of Denver, Colo. She was preceded in death by her parents; her brother, James; and three sisters, Genevieve, Janey and Alice Whitty White.

Sister Loretta was born Jan. 14, 1914, in Clarion, Iowa, the daughter of James and Etta Burke Whitty. She entered the Cedar Rapids Community of Sisters of Mercy on July 14, 1933, receiving the name of Sister Mary Bernadette. She professed her perpetual vows on June 21, 1939. Sister received her B.A. degree from Loras College in Dubuque and her M.S. degree in elementary education from St. Mary College in Xavier, Kan. She also attended Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Sister Loretta shared her love of learning with children at the following Iowa elementary schools: St. Berchmans and St. Joseph in Marion; St. Benedict in Decorah; St. Cecilia in Ames; St. John and Sacred Heart in Waterloo; St. Nicholas in Evansdale; St. John in Clarion; and St. Wenceslaus, Immaculate Conception and St. Matthew in Cedar Rapids. Out of state, she taught in Our Lady of Grace, Minneapolis, Minn., and St. Matthew, Kalispell, Mont. Sister also served as principal in Kalispell, Clarion, and at Waterloo Sacred Heart. She retired to Sacred Heart Convent in Cedar Rapids in 1996.

Memorials may be sent to Sisters of Mercy, 1125 Prairie Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402; or to the Sister Loretta Whitty Scholarship Fund, Mount Mercy College, 1330 Elmhurst Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402.