Sr. Melissa Anna Letts, OSB
1954----2018

Sister Melissa Anna Letts, OSB, (64), a Benedictine sister of Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, Kan., died Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, at the monastery. 
The vigil service will be Monday, Sept. 17, at 7:00 p.m. in the monastery chapel, and the Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated there Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 10:30 a.m.

Sister Melissa Letts was born in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Feb. 19, 1954, to Charles and Shirley Letts . She is a citizen of the Muskogee Nation (Creek).  She graduated from US Grant High School in Oklahoma City in 1972 and earned a BA in history from Central State University in 1984. She also held a BA in pastoral ministry from Kansas Newman and an MA in pastoral ministry from St. Thomas Aquinas College. From 1984-95, she was a member of the Air Force Reserve at Tinker AFB in Okla. Sister Mellissa entered Red Plains monastery in Piedmont, Okla., in 1995, and made her lifetime vows in 2003. She served as director of religious education at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Calument, Okla.,from 1997-2009. She was also a hospice chaplain in Edmond, Okla., from 1998-2003. She used her artistic talents working with gourds and clay and gave gourd retreats. After her monastery closed in 2010, she transferred her vows to Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, where she was part of the pastoral ministry team in Dooley Center. She also continued to make beautiful art pieces out of gourds.

Sister Mellissa was preceded in death by her father, Charles Letts. She is survived by her mother Shirley (Kinsey) Letts and her sister, Cheryl Vickrey, two nephews and her monastic family. Arensberg Pruett Funeral Home (http://www.arensbergpruett.com/) is in charge of arrangements. Memorials may be sent to Mount St. Scholastica or made online at the Mount’s web site (www.mountosb.org).