Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Ann Dominic Merkl died July 28 at the age of 79 in Mother Margaret Hall at the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati motherhouse.

Born Evelyn Merkl in Cincinnati, she entered religious life in 1948, serving 59 years as a Sister of Charity.

Sister Ann earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the College of Mount St. Joseph. She began her teaching ministry in 1950 at Holy Name School in Cleveland and served for 10 years as a teacher at St. Boniface School, Cincinnati, Sacred Heart School, Dayton, and in Michigan.

In 1992 she became a receptionist at Seton High School and worked in the school’s tuition office until her retirement in 2001, when she began volunteering in the Sisters of Charity motherhouse gift shop at Mount St. Joseph..

She is survived by a sister, Anna Mae Allgeier, and two brothers, Edward and Howard.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated July 31 in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the motherhouse. Interment was in the Sisters of Charity cemetery.

Sister Rose Margaret Delaney

Franciscan Sister of the Poor Margaret Delaney, 79, died July 19 at Schervier Pavilion in Warwick, N.Y.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in Warwick. She was a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor for 58 years.

A native Falmouth, Ky., Sister Rose Margaret entered the congregation in 1950 after completing studies at St. Elizabeth School of Nursing in Covington, Ky., and served in several leadership roles in the congregation. After a tenure as the director of novices, she was elected minister general.

She was instrumental in the development of the Franciscan Federation and contributed to the writing of the "Rules of Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis."

She is survived by her sister, Betty Hobart, of Cincinnati, and a brother, James Delaney of Florida. Burial was in the Sisters’ cemetery in Warwick.

Sister Virginia Beene

A Mass of Christian Burial for Precious Blood Sister Virginia Beene, 90, was held at Salem Heights on July 25. Sister Virginia died July 20 at the Maria Joseph Living Care Center in Dayton. She had been a Sister of the Precious Blood for 71 years.

Born in Arkansas, she entered the Sisters of the Precious Blood in 1937. She spent more than 25 years in education as a teacher and principal in elementary schools in Cincinnati, Coldwater and Centerville, as well as in Missouri, Arizona and California.

Sister Virginia also served as coordinator of Emma Hall at the Maria Joseph Center and did substitute teaching and religious education in McCartyville, Anna and Minster.

She formally retired in 1994, but continued to minister to the elderly at Twin Towers in Dayton. In 1997 she took up residence at Salem Heights and for the next 10 years volunteered in Emma Hall at the Maria Joseph Living Care Center.

She is survived by a sister, Marilyn Wortman, of Arizona. Interment was in Salem Heights Cemetery.