Sister of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross Rose Colley died Oct. 10 at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary. She was 90 and in the 72nd year of religious life.
Sister Colley, formerly Sister John Martin, was born in Nashville, Tenn. She entered the Sisters of Loretto in 1946 and made final vows Aug. 25, 1952.She served in the Archdiocese of Louisville for nearly half a century as an educator, mediator, facilitator, trainer in mediation and conflict management.
She served as principal of Christ the King School from 1961 to 1964. She then was appointed to Supervisor of Schools for the Louisville Archdiocese. She served in this capacity, where she carried out a “commitment to civil rights in numerous ways” until 1970, according to information provided by the Sisters of Loretto. She then went on to work for the University of Louisville as a field coordinator for the Teacher Corps program.
In 1991, she began her nearly 20-year association with the Council on Peacemaking, which had begun the first non-profit mediation center in Louisville. She was later named as the director of the council’s Just Solutions in 1995. She retired from Just Solutions in 2009 and continued to volunteer her services until 2012 when she retired to the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary, where she carried out a ministry of prayer and presence.
Survivors include a brother, John Colley of Nashville; a sister, Agnes Colley Wheaton of Anchorage, Alaska; nieces and nephews and members of the Loretto community. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Oct. 15 at the Church of Seven Dolors on the grounds of the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky. Burial followed in the Loretto Motherhouse Nature Preserve Cemetery.
