Mary Louise Leeker was born on June 23, 1929, in Lenexa, Kan.. Her parents were John Leeker and Mary Elizabeth McGrath Leeker. She was baptized at St. Paul Church in Olathe, Kan., on July 18, 1929. She was confirmed on April 24, 1938, at Holy Trinity Church in Lenexa.
She was the oldest of eight. She had two brothers and five sisters. Her brothers were John and William, and her sisters were Rose, Catherine, Margaret, Agnes, and Patricia.
Mary Louise attended elementary school in rural Johnson County public schools in Olathe. She attended Gardner High School for three years and completed her senior year at Ursuline Academy. She said, “It was there that my desire to help people began to take shape as I prayed to know my vocation.”
One day, Sister Charles McGrath, her mother’s cousin and a teacher at Ursuline Academy, asked her, “Have you ever thought of being a sister?” Mary Louise answered, “No.” Sister Charles McGrath responded, “You better think about it.” Mary Louise started praying for a sign from God and decided that if she got a summer job close to home, she would enter the convent in the fall. The next day, the manager of the drug store asked her if she wanted a summer job. Her parents gave their permission for her to become an Ursuline Sister as long as this had been her decision. So that summer she dreamed of the life ahead while dishing up hot fudge sundaes, chocolate shakes and root beer floats.
On September 8, 1948, Mary Louise entered the Ursuline Sisters of Paola, Kansas. After a six-month postulancy, she became a novice on March 25, 1949, and received the name she had for 70 years, Sister M. Celine.
The next two years were spent in formation. She studied the history of the community, the rule of the order and many courses in theology. On April 16, 1951, she made temporary profession.
She continued her studies at Mt. St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kan. After receiving a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education with minors in religion, history, and psychology, she was both student and teacher, teaching during the week and taking courses on the weekends and during the summers.
She made perpetual vows on April 19, 1954. Later she studied guidance and counseling at
Creighton University in Omaha. She took reading courses at Webster College in St. Louis. She also attended summer math courses and studied at Rockhurst College in the summer of 1971 on a math grant.
She was an educator for 41 years. She taught school in Greeley, Kan., Bartlesville, Okla., Bonner Springs, Kan., and Overland Park, Kan., until she was asked to be Formation Director for the
Ursuline Sisters of Paola. She served in this position for five years and then went back to teaching. She taught at St. Agnes in Shawnee Mission, Kan., and Garnett, Kan., until she returned to the motherhouse in 1996 where she did many various duties for the community.
Before coming to Kentucky in 2009, Sister M. Celine wrote this for the newsletter, Signs of the Times:
“Each day the road widens. At 14, at the urging of my mother, I set out on foot from our farm in
Gardner and found myself a job. The proceeds from that work allowed me to enter Ursuline Academy as a student. Ursuline was a new world for me – school, routine, even prayer – what a dream. I knew this was the answer to my prayer. Life has been interesting, and the road continues to widen to Kentucky now. God is still doing great things in my life. May you be as happy in your choice as I am.”
Sister M. Celine Leeker, 89, died March 25, 2019, at Mount Saint Joseph, in her 70th year of religious life. The funeral Mass was at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Burial was in the convent cemetery.