Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, who founded what's now the Chesterfield-based Mercy health care system, died Tuesday after a long illness, officials said. She was 87.
Born Antoinette Marie Rocklage and known as Sister Roch, the north St. Louis native joined the Sisters of Mercy religious order in 1954 at age 19, taking her first vows in 1957. She began her career in a medical/surgical nursing post after receiving her nursing degree in 1961 from what's now St. Xavier University in Chicago.
Early in her…
