Obituaries

Sr. Mary Jo Hummeldorf, CDP (Sr. Loretta Anne) died peacefully at Holy Family Home on November 6, 2025. She was a professed member of the Congregation of Divine Providence for 73 years. Born in Covington, KY in 1932 to Ray and Frances Sipple Hummeldorf, she made her first profession of vows in 1952 and professed her final vows in 1957.

Sr. Mary Jo began her ministry as an elementary teacher at St. Aloysius School, Covington, KY in 1952 and then moved to Winchester to begin a career as a secondary teacher at St. Agatha Academy, at Our Lady of Providence Academy, Newport and at St. Camillus Academy, Corbin. From 1967 to 1971 she was involved in the community’s formation ministry assisting candidates as she continued teaching math and science at Our Lady of Providence Academy. Sr. Mary Jo’s organizational skills were recognized, and she became the province’s business coordinator from 1971 to 1973 and then was assigned as the administrator at Our Lady of the Way Hospital in Martin, Kentucky, where she served until 1979. She was elected that year as the Provincial Vicar and served in this position until 1984. Upon the completion of that term, she went to the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA for some study and sabbatical time, followed in 1987 by a two-year course of studies in pastoral counseling at Loyola University, Baltimore. She then began clinical counseling for the Diocese of Toledo and then for the Diocese of Lexington until 1995. Sr. Mary Jo then began her work as director of Moye Spiritual Life Center at St. Anne Convent, Melbourne, where she interacted with hundreds of guests, made various improvements in the facility and outdoor areas, and grew the retreat ministry until she retired to Holy Family Home in 2014. Her work continued there beautifying the outdoor spaces, gardens and courtyard, always planting, planning, and weeding until her knees would no longer allow her to get down on the ground and her stamina and physical strength waned. She loved creating beautiful gardens for others to enjoy and appreciate God’s natural world.

Sr. Mary Jo was a gentle caring woman of deep faith and prayer. Her mild but direct manner strengthened others in counseling or in the on-going support of her sisters in community and ministry. She was close to her family and often spoke of the loss of her mother at such a young age, her time at the orphanage, and the happy reunion of her siblings back home when her father remarried. She will be missed by her religious community, the Sisters of Divine Providence and her many nieces and nephews. Her brothers, Raymond and James and her sisters, Elizabeth Hill and Frances Cassidy all preceded her in death.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Immaculate Conception Chapel, Melbourne on Tuesday, November 11, 2025. Visitation begins at 2:30 with a Wake Service at 3:00 and Mass at 4:00 followed by interment in convent cemetery following Mass. Memorials to the Congregation of Divine Providence, 5300 Saint Anne Drive, Melbourne, KY 41059.