Born in New York, NY in 1931, Louise Loening was the eldest child of Grover Cleveland Loening and Marka Truesdale Loening (later Marka T. duPont) and died peacefully at home, surrounded by family, on December 20, 2024. She was 93.
Ms. Loening grew up in Mill Neck, New York and Charlotte, Vermont, moving to Delaware in 1958 and then Pennsylvania in 1992. Ms. Loening was a graduate of Putney School, Putney Vermont, and received degrees from Bennington College and the University of Delaware.
She loved the theater, and was a theater and music major at Bennington. After Bennington she joined an off Broadway theatre company in New York, where she played a number of roles in productions over several years. After moving to Delaware and Pennsylvania, she continued to act in many local amateur productions, mostly Shakespeare plays with the Lyceum Players.
For over 40 years, Ms. Loening pursued a variety of careers with particular focus on volunteer work in Delaware and elsewhere. For the Nation’s bicentennial in 1976, she was appointed by the Governor as the Executive Director of the Delaware Bicentennial Commission and organized her State’s participation in that grand national celebration. After 1976, Ms. Loening worked for the University of Delaware’s development office and in 1980 became a Magistrate Judge for New Castle County’s Justice of the Peace Courts. Choosing not to be reappointed to the bench, Ms. Loening left Delaware in 1986 to live and work in Calcutta, India for Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity—the seminal volunteer experience of her life. She returned annually to Calcutta between 1986 and 1990. There, she worked alongside the Sisters and Brothers of the order, first in the orphanage and then the leprosy center in nearby Titigarrh, India. Prior to this work, Ms. Loening studied at the U.S. Public Health Hospital for Hansen’s disease in Carville, Louisiana. While there, she learned to diagnose and treat Hansen’s in a limited field work environment.
During her 5-6 month stays in Calcutta, Ms. Loening worked with Mother Theresa daily, and was inspired by this work to convert from the Episcopal church and be received into the Catholic faith in 1989.
Her other volunteer work over the years included years of service at the Delaware State Hospital and other mental health organizations. She was also active in English-as-a-Second-Language in several Wilmington public schools. Upon her return to Delaware full time in 1990, Ms. Loening began a decades long volunteer position working with Brother Ronald Giannone of the Ministry of Caring and its childcare center in Wilmington. Beginning in 1992, Ms. Loening also became a court appointed special advocate, representing foster children under the Delaware courts’ purview. Most recently, Ms. Loening volunteered as a teacher assistant in the Guardian Angel Kindergarten in Wilmington.
Her honors and publications include Resolutions of Gratitude, in 1976, from the Delaware Legislature, an award of service from the Delaware Mental Health Association, and an award from the Phi Kappa Alpha Society. In 1987, the Encyclopedia Britannica published her report on pediatric malnutrition and treatment in Mother Theresa’s orphanage. That same year, the New Oxford Review published her narrative “A Day in the Life of a Volunteer in Mother Theresa’s Mission to the Poor in Calcutta.” From 1987 to 1992, Ms. Loening served on the Board of Trustees of Bennington College.
Ms. Loening was a lifelong member of the Society of the Mayflower Descendants of N.Y.
She was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Irwin Greenfield in 2005, and her brother, Michael T. Loening in 1977. She is survived by her sister, Priscilla Loening Hanford, of Chico, California; her half-brother Christopher T. duPont (and Holley duPont), of Ketchum, Idaho; daughter Mia Carroll Edsall (and Dr. Steve Edsall) of Bellevue, Idaho; son William Loening Prickett (and Elizabeth Prickett), of Danvers, Massachusetts; daughter Priscilla Prickett Cook, of Chicago, Illinois; stepsons Richard Greenfield (and Nancy) and Steven Greenfield (and Sheila) both of Dallas, Texas and stepdaughter Hermine Greenfield Brindak (and Paul), of Old Greenwich, Connecticut. She is also survived by 6 grandchildren, 7 step grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.
A Memorial Mass will be offered at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine at 11:00 a.m. on February 22, 2025. Interment will be private. Following the Mass and internment, the family will gather at the Vicmead Hunt Club to celebrate her amazing life, and invites all family and friends to join them there.
The family suggests a donation to the Ministry of Caring in lieu of flowers.
For online condolences, please visit www.chandlerfuneralhom.com.
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