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The Omaha Regional Community has roots in three Missouri sites:  Independence, Joplin, and Kansas City.  Mother Jerome Shubrick came to Independence from Worcester, MA in 1884 to teach at St. Mary's parish school.  Mother Jerome had a special gift for working with prisoners in the county jail.  Her work among them was so valued that the epitaph on her tombstone recognized her as "The Prisoners' Friend."

Thirteen Sisters of Mercy from Louisville arrived in Joplin in 1885.  Joplin was a rough town where zinc and lead mining dominated, and the clergy and business owners hoped the sisters would be a civilizing influence.  Within a few weeks of their arrival, the sisters opened an elementary school, a boarding school, and an academy.  There was no hospital closer than Fort Scott, KS, a long way for an injured miner to travel by train.  By 1896 the sisters had raised enough money to open St. John's Hospital.  Though Catholics were often regarded with suspicion in Joplin, the citizens welcomed the sisters' hospital, where no one was turned away.