Roman Catholic Cardinal. New Albany born Joseph Elmer Ritter was one of six children born to a baker and his wife. Frequenting the local parochial school of St. Mary's, he entered St. Meinrad's Seminary in Indiana, being ordained priest on May 30, 1917. Appointed curate of St. Patrick's Church in Indianapolis, he was soon transferred to Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in the same city. Cathedral rector between 1920 to 1933, on February 3, 1933, Ritter was appointed auxiliary bishop for the diocese of Indianapolis by Pope Pius XI, receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Hippos on the following March 28 from Bishop Joseph Chartrand, who had ordained him to the priesthood twelve years earlier. Vicar general of the diocese from 1933 till the following year, following the death of the mentioned Msgr. Chartrand, Ritter was named his successor the seventh bishop of the diocese of Indianapolis on March 24, 1934. Facing among others the Ku Klux Klan, he worked hard for civil and social rights of African Americans in Indiana, he ordered the end to racial segregation in all Catholic schools in his diocese. When the latter was elevated to the status of an archdiocese by Pope Pius XII on October 21, 1944, he was installed as its first archbishop on December 19, 1944. Promoted to the metropolitan see of St. Louis on July 20, 1946, succeeding the late Cardinal John J. Glennon, the same practice of ending racial segregation in Catholic schools led him to face various threats from many. Created cardinal priest with the title of Santissimo Redentore e Sant'Alfonso in via Merulana by Pope John XXIII in the consistory of January 16, 1961, the outspoken, small, stocky Cardinal, who remained an avid supporter of racial justice until the end, passed away due to a heart attack while still in office shortly after being admitted to the DePaul Hospital, eleven days after celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his priesthood ordination, on Saturday, June 10, 1967 at 5.47 am. Originally buried at St. Louis's Calvary Cemetery in the plot reserved for members of the clergy, even though he had personally expressed the desire that he would not be buried in the cathedral, on November 2, 1994 during the tenure of Cardinal Justin Rigali, his remains were transferred to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and re-interred in the archbishopric crypt as part of the annual mass for departed members of the Priests' Purgatorial Society. The Cardinal Ritter House at 1218, Elm Street, New Albany, which saw his birth in 1892, after being restored was left under the care of the Cardinal Ritter Birthplace Foundation and serves to this day as a structure to several nonprofit organizations.