Sister Cecilia Joseph Olinger - Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Cotton patch girlSister C.J. was born Evelyn Marie Olinger (pronounced “Oh-linger”) among the cottonfields of Glennonville, the 10 th of 11 children born into the farming family of JosephMatthias and Cecilia Magdalene Olinger. She was called Mary Evelyn during herchildhood, and didn’t know her actual name until she entered the convent, she said.Sister C.J. attended Glennonville Public Elementary School, in which the teachers wereUrsuline Sisters. When Missouri outlawed sisters in religious garb from teaching inpublic schools, the people of Glennonville chose to turn the school into a Catholic schoolnamed St. Teresa, rather than risk losing the sisters as teachers, Sister C.J. said. Sheattended the school as St. Teresa only her last year.The two Ursuline Sisters who had the most impact on her both died in the past year –Sister Frances Miriam Spalding taught her in the first and second grade and SisterMiriam Medley taught her in the seventh and eighth.“Sister Frances Miriam taught me phonics and that helped me with reading andspelling,” Sister C.J. said. “Sister Miriam was instrumental in getting me to (Mount SaintJoseph) Academy. She talked to my mother a lot, and sometimes I wonder if she told mymother that she thought I had a vocation.”St. Teresa could not afford to have aCatholic high school as well, so some ofthose families who wanted to continue aCatholic education sent their daughters toMount Saint Joseph Academy, 250 milesaway in Maple Mount, Ky. Sister C.J. is oneof six Glennonville natives who are UrsulineSisters, the others being Sisters AmeliaStenger, Rebecca White, Diane MariePayne, Mary Celine Weidenbenner andMichael Marie Friedman.Sister Clara and Sister C.J. spend time in thebotanical garden of the Bellagio Hotel in LasVegas in 2008. The two sisters, who were novicestogether, have traveled together across thecountry.Five girls from Glennonville and nearbyWilhelmina came to the Mount in 1954, butonly Sister C.J. and Viola Seely Fortnergraduated. (Fortner died in October 2011).“If I hadn’t gone to the Academy, I don’tknow if I would have entered thecommunity,” Sister C.J. said.“I was excited to come to the Academy,
plus there were others from Glennonville going,” she said. “I didn’t get homesick untilafter a few days.” She received a partial scholarship to attend the Academy and workedoff the rest of her tuition by cleaning the student shop and the post office.Her call to become an Ursuline Sister was gradual. “March was vocation month, theygave us a little talk,” she said. “Each year the calling got more persistent. I felt sure aftermy junior year, I had the feeling I was being called to do this.” Three other members ofher 1958 graduating class entered with her, but she is the only one who stayed. She andSister Clara Reid are the only remaining members of her 1959 novice class.“She was the same then as she is now, always joyful,” Sister Clara said.A teacher is bornSister C.J. began her first of 36 years in the classroom in 1961 at Precious Blood Schoolin Owensboro, Ky., where she taught second grade. After two years she moved to HolyCross, Ky., to teach first grade for two years and then to Immaculate Conception inHawesville, Ky., for a year in 1965, making the jump to seventh and eighth grade. Sheplayed music with her classes.“My first three assignments were because I am an ‘organist,’” she said, accentuating theair quotes. “I’m not really skilled at the organ, I can just do the basic stuff. I had pianolessons my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and organ lessons as anovice,” she said. “We joked that if you knew where middle C was you became theorganist.”It was while she was teaching atImmaculate Conception that one ofher students started calling her“Sister C.J,” she said. “I liked it,” shesaid. “There are too many syllablesin ‘Sister Cecelia Joseph.’”When she arrived at St. RomualdSchool in Hardinsburg, Ky., in 1966,she fell in love with teaching musicto children. “They had a goodbackground. Sister Marie Carol(Cecil) gave them a good start infirst and second grade.” She taughtthe fifth and sixth grades, then laterseventh and eighth during herseven years at the school.Sister C.J. is pictured in the top row to the left in herfirst year at St. Romuald School in Hardinsburg, Ky.The other sisters pictured with her are, from left in herrow, Sisters Dolores Gatton, Florentia Mahoney,Emma Cecilia Busam and Mary Oderic Settles; firstrow from left, Sisters Lucille Blincoe, Jean TeresaTaylor, Paul Joseph Mattingly, Charles EmalineClements and Mary Carl Sherron. Only Sister C.J. andSister Emma Cecilia are still living.
Page 1: Sister Cecelia Joseph Olinger hits
Page 5 and 6: Sister C.J. pictured in her classro
Page 7: She bought some colored bells withg

Sister Cecilia Joseph Olinger - Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?