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Sister Ursula Marie (Mary Leo) Wethington, CSJ, daughter of the late Leo A. and Mary Rose Murphy Wethington, died at Mount St. Joseph on Tuesday, February 10, 2015.
She was born August 3, 1918, at Browns Valley near Owensboro, Kentucky.
When she was 9, her family moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where she attended St. Joseph Grade and High Schools. After graduation, she worked in an insurance office for eight years. After much prayer and discernment, she entered the Congregation of St. Joseph in Wheeling on September 8, 1945. Upon reception into the novitiate, she received a new name in religion, Sister Mary Leo. She made temporary profession of vows in 1946 and final profession of vows on March 19, 1951. She received a B.S. Ed. degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
As a teacher, she served in several diocesan schools: St. Mary and St. James Schools in Clarksburg; and St. Vincent de Paul, Corpus Christi, Blessed Trinity, Sacred Heart, and Cathedral Grade Schools in Wheeling. After retirement from teaching, she worked in the Diocesan Book Store in Wheeling and then in Pastoral Care at Sacred Heart Hospital in Richwood. In 1983, she began her ministry as librarian at Mount St. Joseph. She retired in 1997. She shared: “I always loved the students and never grew tired of teaching. It seems I have always loved whatever I did. It was for God alone that I did it.”
In addition to her parents, Sister Ursula Marie was preceded in death by her brother Charles and her sisters Martha Cooper, Mildred Lynn, and Mary Leo Covert; and her brothers-in-law Charles Cooper, Albert Lynn, and Derwood Covert. She is survived by her sister-in-law Martha Wethington, several nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, and members of her community.
Family and friends will be received from 1 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, February 12, at Mount St. Joseph, 137 Mount St. Joseph Road, Wheeling, where Vigil Services will be held at 7 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 13, in the Mount St. Joseph Chapel with Fr. James Fleming, SJ, as celebrant. Interment will be in the Sisters of St. Joseph section at Mount Calvary Cemetery, Wheeling.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Congregation of St. Joseph – Wheeling Center, 137 Mount St. Joseph Road, Wheeling, WV 26003. Funeral arrangements by Altmeyer Funeral Home, Fourteenth and Eoff Streets, Wheeling. Online condolences may be offered to the family at www.altmeyer.com.