Consuelo, who went by Connie, was born in Gary, Indiana in 1922, the third of ten children, to Pablo and Frances Ornelas who arrived from San Francisco del Rincon, Guanajuato, Mexico in 1920. She attended Lew Wallace elementary and high school. Commencement was at Gary's Memorial Auditorium in June 1941.

Influenced by her older brother Joseph Ornelas, a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine, and a close friend, she attended St. Mary Mercy Hospital, School of Nursing, receiving her diploma September 1, 1945.

Upon completing state requirements, Connie became a registered nurse on January 28, 1946. Shortly thereafter, the superintendent of St. Mary Mercy Hospital offered Connie a fulltime job as Charge Nurse on a surgical floor. Six years later, she left St. Mary Mercy Hospital, becoming Head Nurse at US Steel's Gary Tube Works infirmary. She loved her job and sought to increase her credentials by securing a bachelor's degree in nursing.

Connie applied to Indiana University Northwest and received her letter of acceptance on March 13, 1958. While pleased with this information, the letter indicated that her nursing credits from St. Mary Mercy would be granted upon her satisfactory completion of a residency requirement at Bloomington or Indianapolis. Unable to meet this obligation, she had no choice but to defer this goal. A few years later she received a promotion and transferred to the Gary Works Medical Department as Head Nurse, located at 215 North Broadway.

Throughout Connie's career she held an affiliation with Indiana University Northwest and attended conferences and seminars hosted by the university. Connie maintained active involvement as Vice President with the American Occupational Health Nurses Association Calumet Chapter and St. Mary Mercy Alumni Association. After approximately 32 years of employment with US Steel, she retired in 1984.

In the spring of 1996, she was honored by the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), Northwest Indiana Chapter as the first known Hispanic nurse of Northwest Indiana. She formally received this recognition on April 13, 1996, at Teibel's restaurant near her home in St. John. The guests of the luncheon included a folk singer from the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago who related in song the history of Mexican immigration to Northwest Indiana and weaved Connie's story into his song. In 2000, Connie was recognized again by the Northwest Indiana Hispanic Nurses' chapter for her contributions to nursing and developed a scholarship in her honor.

Connie passed away in 2004 and donated her body to the Indiana University Anatomical Education Program, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. Approximately two years later, Indiana University returned Connie's cremains to her daughter Susan, who prepared her final resting place at Calumet Park Cemetery columbarium in Merrillville.