Mercy Sister Dorothy Pelt, 97, died Nov. 27.

Born in Milwaukee, she entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1942. She began her ministry as a teacher, working in Chicago, Des Plaines and Milwaukee for 30 years. After serving as a principal at St. Patrick in Des Plaines, she had her first experience as a missionary in Peru. 

She returned after a year when the school she taught at in Peru was closed and went back to teaching at Siena and Mother McAuley high schools in Chicago. During the summers, she volunteered in Honduras. In 1976, she was asked to serve full-time in Honduras, where she stayed for 38 years. 

She visited the 54 villages she served no matter the weather, the distance or the terrain, at times living out of her car as she traveled. Because a priest made it to each community only every couple of months, she coordinated teams of lay ministers who could celebrate the Liturgy of the Word on Sundays and other religious holidays, and she trained catechists to teach the children. 

She returned to Mercy Circle in Chicago at the age of 94.