BVM sisters share fond memories of St. Ann’s School

Ed.: The BVM Congregation is celebrating its 100th anniversary of service in Montana. This is the second in a series of articles to be published throughout the year in recognition of this celebration.

Young teacher learns much during Butte assignment

By Sister Monica Seelman, BVM
The first night I stayed at St. Ann’s, the Sisters who had just returned from summer school went out to Papa John’s for pork chop sandwiches. I didn’t go because the altitude was bothering me. Sister M. Camillus who had also stayed at home came into my room and said, “Sister, you are really going to like it here in Butte. The people are all very nice and the children are wonderful. They just love the BVM Sisters here.”
Camillus was so right, I did love Butte and St. Ann’s and all the families. I am very grateful for the wonderful years I spent there.
I was only teaching about two weeks; my 50 first graders were wall to wall, the weather was early September humid, and the children needed a break from sitting. So I got them all up and taught them the rousing song of Noah’s Ark. My classroom shared a wall with the old church and shutters in that wall allowed for cross ventilation. Of course, the shutters were open.
We were happily and noisily singing away when a child rushed in and said, “Sister Mary St. Reginald said to stop the song. There’s a funeral in the church and all they can hear is the children singing, ‘Rise and shine and give God His glory, glory, children of the Lord.’ ” I learned my lesson and we closed the shutters and had quiet time from then on whenever the church was being used!!
Then there’s the story about the boots. One winter day I noticed that Chuckie Cashell was very antsy. We had a narrow coat room and the boots were in disarray, so I asked Chuckie if he would straighten the boots for me. He came back in about five minutes and said he was all finished. I went to take a peek and, to my horror, found he had gathered all the boots into one BIG PILE!! We played a game that day before dismissal – CAN YOU FIND YOUR BOOTS?
When I came to St. Ann’s, the playgrounds were not paved. Instead they were just sandy dirt, great for playing marbles and extracting iron shavings with magnets. Great for making pretend houses – the outline of the rooms formed by the children making lines of sand with their feet. However, the sand was terrible for the floor – the kids wore boots to school and the mud stuck to their soles dried in the classroom heat and each desk had a little mound of sand beneath it at the end of the day.
What was so great was the spirit of the older students. They would stop by after school, help sweep the floor, moving all the desks to do it. They were so generous and helpful!! Good training from home!!
Speaking of home, who could forget the wonderful moms who helped me out with the many students I had. I remember especially Mrs. Chelini (mother of Kim) and Betty Mattich (mother of Tim and Todd) who made sure that one of them was there every morning to take small groups into the old sacristy to review reading and math. The children loved the extra help and their reading and math skills improved greatly.
I also think often of Mrs. Bartle, Tim and Terry’s mother. She took sets of papers home each night and sent them back the next day corrected with each student’s papers stapled together. Only in Butte!!
I must mention two mothers with very large families who pitched in when we needed them. When the call went out that we could use mothers to help on the playground at lunchtime, do you know who was one of the first to volunteer? Mrs. Bartoletti who brought Louie along for her yard duty. And when the gym teacher quit, there was Mrs. Joyce with her three youngest in tow, leading the P.E. classes. I tell stories about all you generous St. Ann’s people whenever I can, so your ears must be ringing.
I’ll close with this story. One day in Room 2, I looked in the back of the classroom and there was Michael Harry, with his head stuck in his wooden chair. I sent a student with an SOS to the office; Sister Mary St. Reginald, the principal, came at once. She sent for Mr. Savage, the custodian, who arrived with a saw. All of a sudden Michael who had been very subdued until then, started crying “Please don’t cut my head off!!”
Later that week Joey McGowan got himself in the same predicament and I figured it out – he had been kneeling on the chair and his body had slipped through the rungs – except for his head which was too big. So I avoided the saw and the principal and extracted Joey by pulling his body out the way he got it in. We also saved a chair that way and Joey kept his head.
I thank all of you at St. Ann’s Parish for giving me, a very young and new teacher, so much help and friendship during my years in Butte. You see I have great memories and all my students are still six and seven years old and the parents are all thirty-something. And you probably remember me as I was in my twenties.
God bless you all.
Sister Monica Seelman, BVM

Generosity of the people of Butte recalled

By Francilla Kirby, BVM
I have wonderful memories of Butte, especially of the people and their enormous generosity. I remember, especially, former teachers like Rose Sullivan and Mary Alice Nuckols, who only needed a phone call at 7:30 a.m. to drop their plans for the day to substitute for a sick teacher – any grade, any subject! And Marion Tallmadge, who volunteered her services at St. Ann’s for 17 years!
And then there were others – coaches, dentists, doctors – too many to name, but who gave freely and live in our hearts.
Another example of generosity: The students of Sister Marcella O’Rourke’s seventh-grade home room went screaming through the halls one morning that “Sister has babies!” The mama gerbil, whom they had named “Stupid” for some long-forgotten reason, had had babies!
One day a student who was caring for them all accidentally dropped Stupid. Her leg broke. Some youngsters volunteered to take her to a veterinarian with whom they were acquainted – one who usually treated cows and horses. He successfully treated her, splinted the leg and sent her back.
The students all wrote “thank you” notes. He was so moved that he sent them a box of chocolate with a note thanking them for allowing him to treat such an appealing little animal.
Another person whose generosity found its own reward was Brenda. Having done a fantastic job in her first year as music teacher at South Central, Brenda, who was Lutheran, heard that a volunteer cook was needed for the summer boys’ program at Legendary Lodge. In August she returned to Butte for the first school meeting of the year. Afterwards we heard she was returning to Legendary Lodge (an eight-hour drive) for the Labor Day weekend.
This was surprising until we discovered that she had met a young seminarian who was also helping out, and that they had formed a relationship. He was studying at Loras College in Dubuque to be a deacon. Part way through the year Brenda moved to Dubuque to be near him; they married, and are a happy couple to this day.
Another favorite story: Sister Julia Patrice often signed missives “J.P.” and replied to those who asked what it meant “It means ‘just perfect.’ ” One day she was chatting with Sister Monica Seelman as they watched the students playing in the school yard. Suddenly Julia felt a pulling on her skirt. “Sister,” said little Patty Bolton, “ those big eighth-grade girls are saying something bad about you.”
“Oh, what are they saying?”
“They say J.P. doesn’t mean ‘just perfect.’ It means ‘Junk Pile!’ ” They laughed so hard they frightened the child.
We do, indeed, have so many happy memories of Butte, the children, their parents.

Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 23, No. 4, April 20, 2007.