Mercy Sister Rita Mooney, 89, died Dec. 23, 2014.

Born in Elgin, she entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1943 and made her final profession of vows in 1949.

She encountered the Sisters of Mercy as a child, when her mother was in a tuberculosis sanitarium across the street from Mercyville in Aurora, Illinois.

She taught for 22 years before getting a degree in nursing in 1970, serving for the rest of her career at Mercy Hospital.