DAYTON — A Shelby County native is celebrating six decades of religious ministry as a member of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. Sister Jeannine (Leo Mary) Kloeker grew up as a member of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Newport and attended Russia Local School through eighth grade.

She graduated from Precious Blood High School — the Congregation’s former school also known as Fatima Hall — in Dayton. She also earned certifications as a dietary manager from St. Louis University and in religious education from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

During her years of active ministry, Kloeker served in food service and administration at the Congregation’s motherhouse and in Burkettsville, Carthagena, Maria Stein, St. Leonard’s and the Maria-Joseph Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, all in Ohio. Now in retirement at Salem Heights, the community’s central house in Dayton, she continues to serve the Congregation as transportation coordinator.

She is among nine sisters marking milestone anniversaries of entrance into the religious community. All the sisters were recognized at a Mass and banquet June 23 at Salem Heights.

Kloeker said she enjoys “observing the great women with whom I live. I see sisters quietly and constantly being available to others who are less able. … I trust primarily in my God whose love I’ve never doubted.”

The Sisters of the Precious Blood are an apostolic Catholic women’s religious congregation devoted to Eucharistic prayer and motivated by the redeeming love of Jesus. Founded in Switzerland in 1834 by Maria Anna Brunner, Precious Blood Sisters minister where the needs of the time call them. They serve in the United States, Chile and Guatemala, proclaiming God’s love by being a life-giving, reconciling presence in the fractured world.