Sister Ruth Klein, 97, died Oct. 13, in the Dominican Sisters of Peace Convent Infirmary in Great Bend. Born Jan. 22, 1915, in Lincoln Neb., as Ruth Rose Klein, Sister Ruth was the daughter of the late Anthony and Mary Helen Hoffman Klein. She entered the Dominican Sisters’ Community in Great Bend July 2, 1930, and pronounced her first vows Aug. 17, 1933. She celebrated seventy-five years of religious profession in 2008. Sister Ruth began her ministerial life as a teacher of grades 1 – 4 in 1934, but she will be most remembered for her education and ministry in music. She taught music lessons for many years to students of grade school and especially to high school and college age young religious of her religious community. She instructed in Gregorian chant and other forms of liturgical music as well as playing organ and piano. She even taught liturgical music in Jamaica for several years. Sister Ruth was also accomplished in cooking and sewing and had designed and made liturgical vestments as well as clothing.
Sister Ruth is survived by her Dominican Sisters of Peace community; two sisters, Sister Marie and Sister Marie Antoinette both of the Great Bend Dominican Sisters; and her cousin, Sister Mary Ann Klein, also a member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace in Great Bend.
Sister Ruth’s body was brought to the hospitality area of the Dominican Chapel of the Plains, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, at 4 p.m. on Monday, where it will lie in state until the Liturgy of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the Rev. Wesley Schawe, the Rev. Ted Stoecklein, and the Rev. Frances Oroffa MSP concelebrating. A wake service will be held at 7:00 p.m. today. Burial will be in the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery. Both the wake and the funeral will be held at the convent. Friends may call at the convent from 9 a.m. until the time of the wake service today and from 9 a.m. until the time of the funeral service. Memorials in honor of Sister Ruth may be sent to Dominican Sisters of Peace, 2320 Airport Dr, Columbus OH  43219-2098.

Funeral arrangements provided by
Bryant Funeral Home*
1425 Patton Road
Great Bend, Ks. 67530
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune, Oct. 16, 2012