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Loretto Sister Kathleen Mary O’Malley dies
By Jean M. Schildz
Loretto Sister Kathleen Mary O’Malley, a longtime educator and guidance counselor in Englewood who helped to create a Pueblo parish, served the elderly and was a Catholic Charities worker in Lakewood, died Easter April 24 at her home in Lakewood. She was 80.
She was born Sept. 25, 1930, in Chicago and baptized Kathleen Joan. She entered the Sisters of Loretto in 1951 and was received into the congregation on April 25, 1952. She made her first vows on May 24, 1954, and her final vows on Aug. 15, 1957. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1951 from Webster College (now University) in Webster Groves, Mo. She earned a master’s in education in 1965 from St. Louis University and a gerontology certificate in 1982 from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
Early in her ministry from 1954 to 1957, Sister O’Malley taught third and fourth grades at St. Mary’s Academy in Englewood, Colo. Her next assignment was as a teacher and part-time counselor in Mobile, Ala., from 1957 to 1964.
In 1964, Bishop Charles Buswell of the Diocese of Pueblo welcomed the Loretto Sisters to a new ministry as members of a pastoral team at Guadalupe Parish, Pueblo. Sister O’Malley led the Loretto apostolic work there to help form the new parish based on the needs of the people in the low-income, Hispanic neighborhood and served as the Loretto superior. During that time she also served as part-time moderator of the Newman Club of Southern Colorado State College.
In 1968-69, Sister O’Malley returned to St. Mary’s Academy, where she was responsible for academic and personal counseling and team taught theology for grades nine-12. She then moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where from 1969 to 1974 she served as director of guidance and counseling services at a high school.
From 1974 to 1980 Sister O’Malley oversaw the areas of job/career counseling for the Loretto community in Denver. She was coordinator of the Loretto work development staff in Denver in 1981. In 1983, after earning her gerontology certificate, she became program director at Cathedral Plaza and Marian Plaza, two retirement/assisted-living, high-rise apartments for the elderly run by Archdiocesan Housing, an agency affiliated with Catholic Charities in Denver. In 1992, she returned again to St. Mary’s Academy to serve as interim president. From 1993 to 2010, she worked or volunteered in various capacities at Catholic Charities in Lakewood. Her last position before retiring in 2010 was as director of emergency services for Catholic Charities. In addition, she served on the boards of St. Mary’s Academy and Nazareth Hall, the Loretto retirement residence in El Paso, Texas.
Among survivors are her two brothers, Thomas F. O’Malley Jr. of Casa Grande, Ariz., and Edward J. O’Malley Sr. of Prairie Village, Kan.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated 7 p.m. May 11 at the Loretto Center, 4000 S. Wadsworth Blvd. in Littleton.
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