Hospital names chapel after Loretta Young

Desert Regional Medical Center has dedicated its 24-seat Loretta Young Louis Memorial Chapel.

The Palm Springs, Calif., chapel features a photograph of the Hollywood star who frequently attended the daily 11:30 a.m. Catholic Mass in the hospital chapel.

Young was 87 when she died of ovarian cancer in August 2000. She was born in Salt Lake City.

Patients and staff knew her as "Miss Louis," the elegant woman who walked the medical center halls and waved at doctors and nurses as she stopped in patients' rooms to say hello or pray.

"She touched lives. I think it was her daily mission. She would be love in action," daughter-in-law Linda Lewis said during last week's dedication of the $250,000 chapel.

Actor Richard Thomas said during the ceremony, "She was a star, but she was also a great human being."

The actress was married three times — to Grant Withers, Thomas Lewis and Jean Louis.