Dominican Sister of Peace Teresa Orozco, age 76, died at the Great Bend, KS, Motherhouse on December 12, 2017. She was born October 18, 1941, in Lamar, CO, the oldest daughter of Josephine Delfina Jara and Pacual Marquez Orozco’s six children. In 1964 she entered the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend, now the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
In her preaching at Sr. Teresa’s Vigil Service, Sr. Janice Thome described her as a woman who listened and responded to the need of the times over the decades of her ministry as a Dominican Sisters of Peace.
As a novice in 1964, she helped the Sisters teaching in Pueblo with household work. After moving to Garden City, KS, she began working as an x-ray aide at St. Catherine Hospital, where her bicultural and bilingual experience helped her to serve both local cultures. Sr. Teresa earned an Associate’s Degree in Nursing from Garden City Community College in 1976 and served as an RN for eight years at St. Catherine’s.
After an injury ended her nursing career in 1984, Sr. Teresa again put her bicultural heritage to work for the good of God’s people by entering parish work as the Director of the Diocesan Office of Mexican-American Affairs in Elkhart, KS.
In 1991, Sr. Teresa studied at the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio to further her ability to minister to the Hispanic community, and then served the Lakin and Deerfield parishes for three years before returning to minister in her home parish of Garden City. She served as a volunteer, Spanish translator, and receptionist at the Great Bend Motherhouse until she entered a ministry of prayer and presence in 2015.
Sr. Teresa had a special gift for working with married couples struggling to live their vows within the church. She was also a talented musician and artist and used both of these gifts to enrich her ministry at the Great Bend Motherhouse.
Sr. Teresa was preceded in death by her parents and two siblings. She is survived by Dominican Sisters of Peace religious community, one brother, Vincent, from Minnesota, and two sisters, Susanna (Candie) Stegman, and Laura Denise Estep, from Colorado.
A Vigil of Remembrance was held December 14, 2017, at the Dominican Chapel of the Plains in Great Bend, KS. The Mass of Christian Burial was held Friday, December 15, 2017. Sr. Teresa Orozco was interred at the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery in Great Bend, KS.
Memorial gifts in Sr. Teresa Orozco’s memory may be submitted securely online or sent to:
The Dominican Sisters of Peace
Office of Mission Advancement
2320 Airport Drive
Columbus, OH 43219
To download a printable copy of this memorial, please click here.