Sister David (Loretta) Splonskowski, 81, died Monday, August 4, 2003, in Pierre.

Loretta was born on a farm near Braddock, North Dakota., Of the eleven children born to Francis & Elizabeth Kappenman Splonskowski, three boys and three girls entered religious life.

After attending public grade school in Braddock, she attended

St. Mary's High School in Richardton, North Dakota. After one year, she entered Sacred Heart Convent in Yankton in August of 1938. She transferred to Mother of God Monastery, when she was selected as a founding member of new community.

Sister David earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mount Marty College in Yankton and a minor in library science from Northern State University in Aberdeen. As an elementary teacher, she taught in schools in North and South Dakota and Nebraska. She also gave music lessons in the schools where she taught. Of all these schools, St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlain was especially dear. "My name may not be in lights on a marquee, but there is a David Family Living Unit at St. Joseph's named to honor me for having worked there for ten years," she said.

Sister David served as school librarian at St. Mary's in Aberdeen, St. Anthony's School in Hoven, and at St. Bernard School on the Standing Rock Reservation. One of her outstanding achievements was at Fort Yates, where, she modestly stated, "With much help I built a new library (4000 books). "

Sister David is survived by two sisters, Sister Anita Splonskowski of Mother of God Monastery and Rose Riehl of Flasher, ND; two brothers, Arthur Splonskowski of Bismarck, North Dakota and Father Wilfred Splonskowski, a monk of Assumption Abbey in Richardton, ND, serving in Terry, Montana; and her sisters of Mother of God Monastery.