Sister Mary Francis Clarke, a nurse for many years at St. Joseph Medical Center, died Nov. 29 of cardiovascular complications at Assisi House, a retirement home for her order, the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. She was 90.

Born Mary Grace Clarke in Ballina in Ireland's County Mayo, she took her vows in 1935 after two years in the novitiate in the United States. She trained to become a registered nurse in Tacoma, Wash., and spent her career as a surgical/medical nurse.

Sister Francis first worked in Baltimore at St. Joseph Hospital from 1955 to 1964, when it was located on Caroline Street. Her second assignment at St. Joseph was decades later, from 1991 to 1999, after it had moved to Towson and became St. Joseph Medical Center.

Other medical service and teaching assignments took her to Wilmington, Del., back to Ireland for two years, and to St. Agnes and St. Mary hospitals in Philadelphia.

Survivors include a brother and four sisters overseas, including Sister Bernard Clarke, a nun in India.