LEAVENWORTH — Sister Rita Orleans, 100, a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth for nearly 83 years, died Aug. 22.
Born Rita Lucille on Sept. 29, 1925, in Fort Collins, Colorado, she was one of seven children of Louis P. and Laurence Orleans.
Rita attended Fort Collins High School, graduating in 1943. She entered the Sisters of Charity novitiate on Sept. 1, 1943, at age 17. She received her habit and the religious name Sister Mary Louis on March 5, 1944, and made her first vows on June 20, 1945. She later reassumed her baptismal name.
Faith was a significant part of Sister Rita’s family story, and several family members were called to religious life. Her sister, the late Sister Mary Donalda Orleans, joined the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, as did their cousin, the late Sister Mary Coletta Michaud.
She began her healthcare ministry at Providence Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, where she trained as a nurse and became a registered nurse in 1948. For more than six decades, Sister Rita devoted her life to nursing and healthcare, ministering in hospitals in Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and Canada. Her roles included nursing, surgery, operating room management, education, administration, materials management and technology.
A lifelong learner, Sister Rita continued her education alongside her ministry. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing education from Saint Mary College in Leavenworth in 1968 and a master’s degree in nursing from Boston University in 1973. She also studied operating room management and technology at St. Michael Hospital in Toronto, Canada.
Sister Rita brought intelligence, determination, kindness and a strong sense of responsibility to her ministry. She was a respected leader whose quiet confidence and thoughtful manner left an impression on those around her.
That straightforward approach guided her throughout a career that required both leadership and adaptability. She was director of continuing education at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, and coordinator of the Western Health Education Center. In 1976, she joined the staff at Saint Vincent Hospital in Billings, Montana, where her responsibilities included materials management and central processing.
As health care became increasingly dependent on technology, Sister Rita adapted with it. From 2001 to 2008, while in her late 70s and early 80s, she took on a new ministry as a database administrator at Saint Vincent Hospital. Embracing an entirely different responsibility so late in her career reflected a quality that marked her life: Sister Rita was willing to learn what was needed to serve where she was needed.
In 2008, Sister Rita returned to Leavenworth, where she lived at the motherhouse and continued in volunteer ministry. In September 2025, she celebrated her 100th birthday, marking a century of life and more than eight decades as a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth.
Sister Rita was a great lover of the outdoors, enjoying walking and hiking, especially in the mountains, and finding God in nature. She also loved her family deeply and spent many summers vacationing with them in the mountains of Montana and Colorado.
