The funeral Mass for Sister Bernadette Kleine was celebrated Nov. 24 in St. Joseph Chapel at the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood motherhouse in O’Fallon. Sister Bernadette (also known as Sister Charitas) died Nov. 18. She was 95.
Born in Omaha, Neb., she was the third of eight children. She entered the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in 1940 and professed first vows in 1943. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Quincy University in Quincy, Ill., in 1957.
Sister Bernadette mainly taught primary grades. She used to say that the very best time of her life was when she was teaching little children. She loved her students, and was loved by them.
In Missouri, Sister Bernadette taught at St. Stephen Protomartyr, Holy Family, St. Elizabeth Academy and St. George in St. Louis; St. Brendan in Mexico; St. Joseph in Martinsburg; Sacred Heart in Florissant; and Sacred Heart in Ozora. She also spent 17 years teaching in her home state of Nebraska at St. Joseph in Omaha and St. James in Crete.
Since 1994, she engaged in volunteer ministries and the ministries of prayer and presence, first at St. Monica in Creve Coeur and then in O’Fallon.
She now experiences in fullness the verse she chose for her memorial card, “You are my inheritance, O Lord” (Psalm 16).
