Rita Bergimini, SP
July 16, 1921 - January 19, 2025
Obituary
(Sister Marie Carmen)
Sister Rita Carmen Bergamini (Sister Marie Carmen), age 103, a Sister of Providence for 81 years, died January 19, 2025 at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, Wash. Vigil: Thursday, February 13, 2025, 4:00 pm, St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, Wash. (4800 37th Ave SW), Funeral Mass: Friday, February 14, 2025, St. Joseph Residence, 11:00 am. Bonney Watson Funeral Home oversees the arrangements.
Sister Rita was born on July 16, 1921 in Martinez, Calif. to her Italian immigrant parents Maximillian and Adalgiza (Lambruschini) Bergamini. Sister Rita was nurtured in her lively and sensitive family of three brothers and five sisters. She grew up in a house enriched with classical music, art, movies, and nature. She enjoyed playing sports.
After graduating from high school in 1939 from Alhambra Union High School, Martinez, Calif., Sister Rita enrolled in Providence College of Nursing in Oakland, Calif, graduating in 1942. She then received a BS in Nursing Education in 1950, Seattle University. She obtained a MS degree in nursing education, Catholic University of America in 1954, and a PhD in Nursing Administration, University of California – Berkely in 1964.
Sister Rita always felt a call to serve, and the seeds of religious life began to be sown in Sister Rita during nursing school in Oakland. She entered the Novitiate of the Sisters of Providence community in 1943, making First Vows in 1945, and Final Vows in 1948.
Sister Rita served in nursing ministry at St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, Oregon (1945-47); St. Elizabeth Hospital, Yakima, Washington (1947-48); St. Mary Hospital School of Nursing, Walla Walla, Wash. (1950-53); and Providence Hospital Clinical Unit, Seattle University School of Nursing (1954-60). In 1961, she received a U.S. Public Health Service Nurse Fellowship Award. Starting in 1964, for seven years, Sister Rita ministered as her religious community’s Provincial Secretary.
Sister Rita was well-known for her love of archives, and for being an endless source of information on the history of the Sisters of Providence. Because she was factual, efficient, dedicated and organized, being an Archivist was a natural fit. In 1972, Sister Rita began her ministry as the first archivist of the former Sacred Heart Province of the Sisters of Providence. She delighted in reading voraciously, meticulously recording details in a tight, neat script, and sharing information with others. She worked tirelessly as the keeper of the province’s history, as a consultant, and discovering many old documents and artifacts. Sister Rita recognized the value of a religious community archives and wanted to make sure that the history of women in the United States doesn’t overlook the history of women religious.
Sister Rita is to be thanked for helping to prepare the background material for the successful effort to place a statue of Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC. Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the foundress of the Sisters of Providence in the West, arrived in the Washington Territory in 1856, and her statue has represented the state of Washington since 1980.
Sister Rita retired from active ministry in 1999 but continued to do projects in Providence Archives and collect donations for the poor. She enjoyed making greeting cards, doing gardening, listening to classical music, observing the “absolute beauty” of the seagulls, Puget Sound, Olympic Mountains, sunsets, trees, crows, and going on ferry rides. She was profoundly grateful to God, family, her religious community and friends. She is immensely missed.
She is preceded in death by her parents and her eight siblings. She is survived by her nieces, Carol Emerick and Donna Horne, nephew, Wallace Ronald, grand-nieces, Lynn Hall and Laura Emerick, grand-nephew, Eric Horne, beloved friends, and by the Sisters in her community.