GREENFIELD — A fifth death has been reported at a Greenfield convent where nuns have tested positive for COVID-19.
Sister Bernadette Kelter died on April 26. She was 88 years old. The medical examiner says she tested positive for COVID-19 in a post mortem test.
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Sister Bernadette was born in Pine Bluff, Wisconsin, and was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis for 72 years. She is "survived by her sisters Sr. Catherine Kelter, SSSF of Greenfield, WI and Mary Zimmerman of Madison, WI and the School Sisters of St. Francis Community with whom she shared life for 72 years," the obituary says.
The School Sisters of St. Francis says she served as a teacher in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, for 30 years. In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Sister Kelter taught in the 1960s and 70s at St. Kilian School in Hartford, St. James School in Menomonee Falls, and St. Peter and Paul School in Nenno. She also ministered as a home health aide for more than 25 years in Milwaukee until she retired in 2007 at age 76. She has been a resident of Our Lady of the Angels Convent since it opened in 2011.
A private mass of burial will be held Thursday, April 30. Instead of flowers, the obituary says contributions to the School Sisters of St. Francis are appreciated.
Four other nuns at the same convent have also died from complications related to COVID-19. Sister Mary Regine Collins died on April 6, Sister Marie June Skender died on April 7, Sister Mary Francele Sherburne died on April 9, and Sister Annelda Holtkamp died on April 19.