July 21, 2026
… The Lord your God delights in you. – (Zephaniah 3:17)
Sister Marilyn Rupp, ASC, an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, died peacefully July 14, 2026, at the Wichita Center. She was 98 years old and had been professed for 80 years. Born on May 13, 1928, and baptized that same day, she was the oldest of ten children born to Ignatius J. and Mary K. (Wolf) Rupp of Hays, Kansas.
Her early family life was faith filled with morning and night prayer as a family, along with praying the Rosary, especially in October. Her family were parishioners of St. Joseph Church and school in Hays, Kansas, where most of her siblings attended. Her father bought a hardware store in Ellis, Kansas. Sister Marilyn attended public school there for one year before her father decided to send her to St. John’s Academy in Wichita, which was operated by the Adorers, the sisters who taught her in grade school.
Sister Marilyn graduated high school from Sacred Heart Academy, received her BS in Education from Sacred Heart College in Wichita, Kansas, and her Masters in Teacher-Education from Emporia State University. After 28 years of teaching, Sr. Marilyn moved into the medical field, working first as a nurse aid in Health Care at the former Wichita Provincial House. After graduating from LPN training at Wichita Community College, she worked for 12 years at Parallax, a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics. In 1993, Sr. Marilyn became the Exercise Coordinator for the sisters at the Wichita Center. In 1998, Sr. Marilyn began Living Mission in Later Life, being a positive presence to sisters and staff at the Center. She became a resident of Caritas in 2022.
Sister Marilyn had a wide variety of ministries during her vowed life and carried a willingness to go where there was a need. These needs took her as a primary and intermediate teacher to Augusta, Ellinwood, Conway Springs, St. Marks, Kinsley, Ness City, and Angelus Kansas, and St. Ann, Christ the King, St. Margaret Mary and All Saints in Wichita. She also taught in Okarche, Oklahoma and David City, Nebraska. Her first mission assignment was housekeeping for Archbishop Lucey in San Antonio, Texas. About her teaching years, Sr. Marilyn said, “I consider teaching 28 years my greatest contribution to my church and community.”
From 1982-1986 Sr. Marilyn participated in the Wichita Diocese Beginning Experience Weekend to understand the loss and separations that happened to her clients at Parallax because of their choices in life. She became a member of the Alumni of the Beginning Experience.
In 2000, Sr. Marilyn was one of three professed members of the first U.S. Region welcoming community. Its purpose was to be an intentional community giving women in their Candidate year an experience of learning about religious life while living in community.
Each of these ministries graced Sr. Marilyn with the fruit of constantly telling everyone how much God loved them and how she loved them.
Celebrating any event was Sr. Marilyn’s trademark. She regularly traveled to Florida, spending time with family and helping her sister, Anita, with the annual church fundraiser. Funnel cakes were the family specialty and sister generously helped sell these for the parish. Milestone birthdays and vow anniversaries merited special celebrations and in between, her siblings, nieces, and nephews remembered her with gifts and phone calls. Sister Marilyn’s last sizeable celebration, May 17, 2026, honored her 80 years as a vowed member of the Adorers as well as her 98th birthday.
Sister Marilyn loved God’s beauty and desired others, especially the sisters, to come to know their own beauty. To this end, she learned hair care styling and sisters consulted with Sr. Marilyn to have her help them look better and thus feel better about themselves. She believed looking and feeling good gave honor to God. Focusing on holistic responses to body aches and pains, she also offered reflexology and served as a “color analyst” long before that was popular.
Her hobbies included reading, stitching tea towels, telling stories, and enjoying the company of others.
Preceding Sr. Marilyn in death were her parents Ignatius and Mary K (Wolf) Rupp; her brothers John, Roger, Brian and Roger Phillip; and sisters Glenna Lewis, Anita Gilmore, Edwarda Rupp, and Mary Rupp. She is survived by her brother Tim of Florida, numerous nieces and nephews, and her ASC community members.
Marilyn will be welcomed home to the Wichita Center on Thursday, July 30, with a Wake service at 6:30 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated July 31 at 10:30 a.m. with Rev. Tom Welk, C.PP.S as presider and homilist. All services will take place at the Woman of the New Covenant Chapel, with interment in the convent cemetery.
Sister Marilyn, you experienced the Lord your God delighting in you. May you rejoice with singing and dancing forever filled with this Love.
Donations in Sr. Marilyn’s memory may be sent to the Adorers at 4233 Sulphur Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109, or made online at www.adorers.org.
Adorers of the Blood of Christ, United Sates Region
Sister Marilyn was wonderful and so much fun to be around — and so funny. I always loved getting to see her on my trips to Wichita and laugh at her quick quips. My sympathies to the ASC community and her family as we celebrate her eternal joy. Just thinking about her makes me smile.