Oral History: Sister Rose Marie Schneider
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Sister Rose Marie Schneider
Subject
Sister Rose Marie Schneider
Description
An oral history of Sister Rose Marie Schneider, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1919 until 1987. The interview was conducted by Sister Sara Louise Reilly on February 2 and April 20, 1983.
Sister Rose Marie was born on September 11th, 1896 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Daughter of George Schneider and Theresa Sherry, Alberta Schneider entered the community on August 15th, 1919 at the age of 22 as Sister Rose Marie Schneider.
Sister Rose Marie was a professor of Home Economics at Seton Hill College from 1926 to 1954. She served as the past President of the National Catholic Council on Home Economics. Sr. Rose Marie worked at Jeanette District Memorial Hospital from 1959-1978 as a housekeeper (from 1959-1968) until she was promoted to executive housekeeper from 1968-1978.
Sister Rose Marie received her B.S. in Home Economics from Seton Hill College in 1924 and then her M.A. in Nutrition and Management from Columbia University in 1927.
Sister Rose Marie Schneider passed on February 2nd, 1987 at the age of 90.
Sister Rose Marie was born on September 11th, 1896 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Daughter of George Schneider and Theresa Sherry, Alberta Schneider entered the community on August 15th, 1919 at the age of 22 as Sister Rose Marie Schneider.
Sister Rose Marie was a professor of Home Economics at Seton Hill College from 1926 to 1954. She served as the past President of the National Catholic Council on Home Economics. Sr. Rose Marie worked at Jeanette District Memorial Hospital from 1959-1978 as a housekeeper (from 1959-1968) until she was promoted to executive housekeeper from 1968-1978.
Sister Rose Marie received her B.S. in Home Economics from Seton Hill College in 1924 and then her M.A. in Nutrition and Management from Columbia University in 1927.
Sister Rose Marie Schneider passed on February 2nd, 1987 at the age of 90.
Creator
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Publisher
Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Date
1983/02/02
1983/04/20
Rights
All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Format
Audio cassette tape
Type
Oral history
Identifier
OH-17
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sister Sara Louise Reilly
Interviewee
Sister Rose Marie Schneider
Transcription
OH 17-1 1
This interview is being conducted as part of the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Rose Marie Schneider. The interviewer is Sister Sara Louise Reilly. The interview is being conducted at Assumption Hall where Sister Rose Marie lives. The date is Wednesday , February 2, 1983.
SSL: Good morning, Sr. Rose Marie. SRM: Good morning.
SSL: I'm happy to be here with you this morning for this special occasion that both of us have
been waiting for. Sr. Rose Marie, the psalmist says that seventy is the sum of your years, or eighty if you are strong. So you are one of those strong people of whom the psalmist speaks. I think that you are somewhat past the age of eighty and you're a very active person, a very interesting person; and we'd like to hear something about your life. First of all, your life before you became a Sister of Charity and then many of the interesting things that you have to tell us about your life as a Sister of Charity. To begin then, would you like to tell us something about your family and your early life, your education, and anything else you'd like to share with us.
SRM: My life started at Wilkinsburg, in St. James Parish and for the five years I went to the Catholic school at St. James School. Then I went to the public school for my sixth, seventh and eighth grades. And after, I took music from Sr. Estelle Lowe, sister of Mother Aloysia Lowe. Sister broke her leg, and went to Pittsburgh Hospital and I visited her there. She invited me to Seton Hill to visit her when she was recuperating. And so, in June 1912, I took my first ride to Seton Hill to see Sr. Estelle. While I was there she asked me if I would like to come to the Academy. I said, naturally,"Yes ." She sent me to Sr. Francesca, and there, Sr. Francesca interviewed me; she said she would send some information to my parents. When I told my parents that Sister had, ah, asked me if I wanted to go to the Academy my parents said, "How can I send you to a boarding school? " Well, that was in June; in August my mother said to me, "Do you still want to go to Seton Hill to school?" I said, "Oh, yes." Well, she said, "Papa and I are going there to see what we can do about it." And unfortunately, or fortunately, they told the sisters that I might want to be a Sister. I had never thought about being a Sister as far as I know.
Well, anyhow , I did go to Seton Hill in September of 1912. Now while I was, ah, the reason that I think that my parents got that idea was that I had been going to Mass every morning. That was through the influence of my mother and one time she said to me on a Saturday morning that I didn't go to Mass, "Mary Gorham, across the street is just coming home from Mass and here you are still in bed." So you can see how there is this influence in my family. My family was a very staunch Catholic family . My mother was Irish, my father was German; so they did have quite an influence in my early life. So then, finally I went to Seton Hill and every time that I would do anything that was well. wrong,
the Sisters would say, "You can't be a Sister if you do that." Well, anyhow, we had a very joyful time. However, it was during that time that I became homesick and we had ah, Sister Raphael as our angel.
SSL: That was Sister Raphael Kane.
SRM: Yes , and she said "I think you'd better go home before you forget." Well, anyhow , I
forgot. And I stayed on until ah, that --
But, during that time I had some very influential teachers . Sr. Electa who was a very good friend of mine, taught English. Sr. Bertha taught me Latin; Sr. Stanislaus, history; Sr., ah, er, Miss Mehan.. May Mehan.. Domestic Sciences, it was called then; then we had Sr. Mary Matthew in the ah...
SSL: Dormitories?
SRM: Dormitories . And she, one of the little incidences about her. . . One of the rules was that we had to make our own beds, and if we didn't do them properly she would tear them all apart and we'd have to make them all over again. Well, that was Sr. Mary Matthew. But, anyhow . . . we were obedient and did them as we were told, like that. Then during that year I had some, ah. . . we only had seventy in our class. Mary Timon who was Mother Victoria Brown's niece --
SSL: Not her niece, would she have been her niece or her aunt? Mother Victoria was her, Mary's niece.
SRM: Sister, Mary Timon was Mother Victoria 's SSL: Victoria 's aunt
SRM: Mary Timon was Mother's niece. SSL: Was she?
SRM: Mary Timon was Mother's niece. SSL: Oh, I thought she was her aunt.
SRM: No, she was her niece. Then we had Edith Henry who became later Sr. Rose de Lima. Sr. Rose de Lima was a very brilliant person. She was always. . . one thing connected with Sr. Rose de Lima. . . she used to come up in the evenings to visit when she was a day student and she'd bring Ruth, who became Sr. Columba , with her. Sr. Rose de Lima would spend her time with Sr. Stanislaus, and I would spend time entertaining Ruth.
Well, then also in our class we had Madeline Kenvey from Scottdale and we had Linda Whitehouse from Pittsburgh. I can't remember too many details of my high school life. There was one little incident; we used to play tennis. Oh, by the way, Sr. Fabian was our gym teacher.
SSL: Sr. Fabian Harrigan?
SRM: Yes, and she taught. I have liked basketball ever since that time because she was a very interesting person and our, ah.. athletics. . . We did a lot of sled riding; we had hay riding and we had tennis. Now, I remember an incident with tennis. Mother, er, Sr. Estelle was walking past with a pansy in her hand and she had just been over to Mother Aloysia 's grave and picked this pansy from there. She gave that pansy to me and I put that pansy in a book and pressed it. I had that pansy for years until it got so fragile that I didn't have it any longer. But that was really the only thing I remember of having contact with
Sr. Estelle until. . . Oh, I don't remember any other incidents with her.
SSL: Sister Rose Marie, you mentioned several of the sisters who taught you in the Academy, are there any incidences about any of those sisters that you would like to tell me about.
SRM: Well, the two who came to my, to our home, were Sr. Francesca, Sr. Stanislaus and Sr.
Marie Francesca who we would call "Schwester". They were going to school in Pittsburgh and my father had just bought an automobile. They wanted to go to Seton Hill and they asked me if I would get my father to take them. We did take them up and on our way we almost had a serious accident with a motorcycle. Naturally, my father was just learning to drive a car, and things were a little precarious on the highways at the time, especially the serpentine road that became Lincoln Highway from Pittsburgh to Greensburg. But however, my father survived that. I became very close to Sr. Stanislaus and to "Schwester". Finally; Sr. Stanislaus became my sponsor to the community. But, anyhow, oh, all these things happened in high school. When I finished in 1917 I graduated from high school. Mother Mary Joseph, who was our Mother Superior at the time , called me a slacker because I didn't petition to be a Sister after being there for four years. However, I went home and I took a commercial course at the Pittsburgh Academy with a group of students that Mother Claudia, she was Sister Claudia at the time, brought from Sacred Heart to Seton Hill to visit and I was one of the seniors that helped to entertain that group. When I went home I became very close with that group and we used to meet during the two years that I was at home. We'd meet at different homes and one of them was a sister to Mary Butler who was, in fact, a Sister herself- - became a Mercy Sister. One of these meetings she asked me to come early and said, "I have something to tell you," and I said, " I have something to tell you, too." And so, when I went, I went early and she took me up to her room and showed me her trunk. She said, "See my trunk." She said, "I'm going to be a Sister."
SSL: Was that Mary Butler herself, or her sister?
SRM: That was Mary Butler's sister. Mary Butler was a sister, a Sister of Mercy. SSL: Oh, I see.
SRM: So this is Gertrude Butler, or I mean Teresita Butler, who is now Sr. Gertrude. She entered.
SRM: Is she still living?
SRM: Yes, She's still living. She is not very well. She is living, I think at the Mercy Hospital, as far as I understand. But, anyhow, I told her then that I was going to be a Sister and was going to Seton Hill. And she said, "Maybe I would have gone to Seton Hill had I known you were going," because she was a student at Sacred Heart and knew the Sisters so well, "I might have gone with you." However, she didn't. Fr. Gilbert, was really a friend of that group and he used to meet with us. And that night we had a conversation about going to the convent. Anyhow, 1919 I entered Seton Hill.
When I finally told my father that I was going to be a Sister, he seemed to be sad. Even after having made that statement that he thought I was going to be one. Anyhow , when I came Sr. Gabriella . . .
SSL: Noble
SRM: Noble... was the portress; and after his first or second visit he said, "I'm happy now." He said to Sister, "Sister's happy." This started my, really my community life.
My first Christmas in the Congregation was spent in quarantine. I was alone, a month. That was my beginning. Sister Mercedes Bradley had said that morning I had this temperature, and she said, "Oh, don't go to the infirmary until after Mass because we want to go to the community room after Mass and see what we find on our chair because each one had a chair with little presents, holy cards and etc. for Christmas . And well, after Mass she said, "Go to the infirmary," because I was burning up. Finally, they put me in quarantine. That was Sister Mercedes; she was very sorry that she had really told me to go because I was worse than I might have been otherwise.
SSL: Was Sister Mercedes Bradley in the novitiate with you?
SRM: Yes, she was in novitiate; she was one of the seniors in the novitiate. She died not too very long afterwards. She didn't live to be an old Sister. From then on, I've had a very interesting community life. I've pioneered in four different fields. I began with Sister Rose Angela and Sr. Anselma; we opened the Home Economics Dept. That was my first pioneering. Then we opened the Confraternity program in Westmoreland County in 1929; and that was the beginning of a program. Then I did family visiting in Greensburg , in St. Benedict's, which was a first for a parish.
SSL: St. Benedict's is what is now the Cathedral parish.
SRM: Yes, and Fr. Linus was the pastor at the time; Fr. Marchan, who was a pastor at Sacred Heart when I was at the hospital, was the assistant and Fr. James, who was the pastor at Ascension Church when I was at Jeannette Hospital, was an assistant. And then I pioneered in the... well. .. in fact I think, Assumption Hall. I came to Assumption Hall six months after it was established and I was not allowed to teach anymore because I had a throat condition. I wasn't allowed to teach; and so they sent me and I finally landed at
Assumption Hall and I was here for five years. And then I pioneered at Jeannette Hospital; I was there for a month before they opened. So, as far as my community life is concerned, I've had quite interesting occasions; each one of them a very fruitful one spiritually because each one gave me the opportunity to work with people. I worked with people all my community life. My teaching at Seton Hill was interrupted twice. I should say, too, that we pioneered in the Home Economics Dept. down at St. Mary's where we took over the Boys School.
SSL: The Department had been opened though, before it was moved to St. Mary's. So when you say pioneered in the Dept., you mean in that particular building?
SRM: Well, yes. It was really the pioneering in the college dept. because we. . . ah, see we...
Home Economics was just in the high school at the time. When we opened at St. Mary's it really was Miss Sanders. . . .
SSL: Yes. At one time, though, wasn't the college Home Economics laboratory where the Biology Dept. now is?
SRM: Yes.
SSL: It was a college department in Maura Hall and then it moved to St. Mary's and you were one of the ones who helped to establish the Department at St. Mary's. You mentioned Miss Sanders; I remember she was one of the early members.
SRM: Well, she was the head of the dept. for several years until Sisters Ann Elizabeth took over.
I don't know if this is an interesting story or not; maybe I shouldn't mention it.
While I was. . . how I got to be an Home Economics teacher; my mother had been ill, and I had to, before I entered, I had to keep house and my father bragged to the sisters how well I kept house when my mother was away. My mother had to go away for awhile after she had pneumonia and I kept house for my father. And he bragged about that to Sr.
Francesca. When she wanted to find somebody to send away to take Home Economics, she picked me. She sent me in my. . .well, I was working at Seton Hill to get my degree at Seton Hill. Why. . .ah... in my junior year at college, she sent me to Columbia to start to get work in ah... .
SSL: Nutrition?
SRM: Home Economics, it was especially in management and the title of the course was called Scientific Management. So, I had a year of my Master's work before I finished my Bachelor's work at Seton Hill. It was really at Seton Hill that my interest in life, my interest in my real life's work started at St. Mary's in Home Management.
One of the students, Anna Paul, had a friend who visited a gentleman friend;
and he was working in marble. He was the one who chiseled the names that are now in front of St. Joseph's Chapel at Seton Hill. Anyhow, he was visiting there and somebody had painted the hearth of our good mantlepiece in St. Mary's and I asked him how I could take off the paint. He said it would take a lot of elbow grease and it would take abrasives and it would take time. So that was just a matter of conversation. When he was leaving he said, "Do you want me to help you take that paint off? And I said, "Do something for yourself," because he had in his conversation, bragged that he had been an altar boy; and now he didn't even go to Mass. He was now twenty-one or two years old. And I said to him, "Well, you can't do anything for me until you do something for yourself." "And, what's that?" he said. I said, "Well, you just go back to Church and be a good boy." Well, he did. The next Saturday he went to Confession to receive Communion and then he came up and worked with the mantle. He brought with him a boyfriend who was twenty four years old and had never made his First Holy Communion. He said, "Would you instruct him for his First Holy Communion while I take the paint off?" So I did. Well, anyhow, eight months later he came to Seton Hill to visit me and he said, "I want you to meet my wife. "Your wife," I said, "You never told me you were going steady with anybody." Well, he said, "Rose wanted to make her First Holy Communion and her parents wouldn't let her go to Sunday School. She was 16 years old; they wouldn't let her go to make her First Holy Communion and we wanted to get married. The two of us attended a wedding at Ascension Church and we decided to run away. Now we want to be married by the priest."
SSL:: Sr. Rose Marie, you were active ; certainly in what is going on today in the church in the matter of evangelization, because at the same time that you were teaching at the college you were very active in catechetical work and instruction of converts to the church; so I know you look back on all of that with a great deal of gratification. Thanks to the goodness of God for having allowed you to be a part of all that. I know that you have
many more things to tell us, and so perhaps we can meet again tomorrow to resume this. conversation. Will that be all right with you?
SRM: Yes, that would be fine.
SSL: Good Morning, Sr. Rose Marie. SRM: Good morning.
SSL: This morning, I think, if you will, I'd like to go back and have you tell me a little bit about your family before we continue the discussion of your apostolic life within the congregation . You mentioned that your father was German and your mother was Irish. Were they both born here in the United States?
SRM: Yes , they were. Mother was, and one of her brothers was born, the only two in the family that were born in this country. The others were born in Ireland. And my father was the youngest one in his family and he was the only one born in this country. And they were born in, I think Bavaria. That's where they were born. I have been reading a family tree that Fr. Metzler got together, the family tree of the Metzlers, and you know the Metzlers are Sr. Mary Hubert's family. In that, I learned a great deal about my family that I didn't know before. But there are a few things that still we can't find; and that is where my mother and father met and were married. I did hear at one time, that my mother lived in what is now the Hill District. At that time, in mother's time, it was Mayor Lawrence and the Harris's; it was an elite place. I just have that memory from the past. . . that mother said she lived there at one time. I don't have any other information about that. But Fr Metzler's family tree has given me some information about my family. First of all, I had, we were seven. . . I am next to the oldest. Vincent was the oldest and I was next. And then we had
a set of twins that died in infancy and they were buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Lawrenceville. Fr. found out what the cause of death was and that they were buried. . . .
in my grandparents' grave.
Then Leo came into the family; he had four girls, and Leo, died in 1969; I think it was. And his wife died just a year after, leaving four girls and they are very, very close to me to this day. And then Jane came along. When mother died she was in the eighth grade , no, she was in first year high school at Sacred Heart. Then Marian came and she was in the eighth grade. And Vincent sent Jane and Marian to Seton Hill to school to be with me because I had become a Sister. Well, I had been a Sister two and one half years at that time. Vincent thought it would be good to be under my protection, not my protection exactly, but my care. But I couldn't see them very much because they were in the Academy and I was in Novitiate; I had to get permission to go to visit them. But it was very fortunate that they were there, though, because there was nobody at home to take care of them; mother and dad were both dead. The family became very close when mother died. Vincent got the group together and told them that now if we mourn for mother and dad we will be mourning for ourselves. We want to do what mother and dad want us to do and keep together. He was the one that was mother and father to the family and he died in 1972. So that is the make-up of our family. To go back to my father, my father was from West Liberty. Now, I don't have much information about him, except one incident. I don't know if I told you about the incident at DePaul? Did I tell you that before?
SSL: You mentioned something, but not when we were having this interview and maybe you
would like to say that now.
SRM: My father was a bookkeeper for Mr. McCafferty. You may have known Mabel McCafferty who went to Seton Hill. It was her father . My father was her father's bookkeeper. He accompanied Bishop Canevin to the area in Brookline to find a site for DePaul Institut e. Sr. Rose Xavier is writing the history of DePaul and she told me that my father is mentioned in the history of DePaul because of that incident.
SSL: Your father was George Schneider?
SRM: George Schneider. He had, as far as I know, he had only one brother, Louie and two sisters. When my mother died one of his sisters had been, was a widow, and she came and kept house for four years. Vincent had been really engaged when mother died, but he waited and so did Elizabeth, four years to become married because he had a family to take care of. I think I did tell you before that my sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hogan, was one of the group that came to Seton Hill with Mother Claudia when I was a senior. After I
entered, why, she married my brother. She is still living in East Liberty, just two blocks below Sacred Heart.
SSL: Does she have a family?
SRM: No. She doesn't have a family. Vincent and Elizabeth prayed very hard for a child, but the Lord didn't send them any. We felt, I did particularly, felt that the Lord didn't give him any children because he had a family to take care of after mother died. Then Jane's children and Leo's children became Vincent's grandchildren and he was able, because of his position, to help them in some of their difficulties because you know, the depression came along at that time too. Vincent was able, not having any responsibility for a family of his own, he really did take on the families of ...
SSL: Your sister's.
SRM : Leo and Jane. It may have been that the Lord kept him in that way to be able to do that. He was able physically and financially to help them in many cases. In one incidence Jane had a heart opera tion. She was the 150 th heart operation in the United States. The doctor had said that she had 26 months to live. They sent her down to Hanaman ? Hospital in Philadelphia where they were experimenting with heart patients. There were a few fatalities in the experimental program at the time. Jane always said she lived eight years after the operation and she always said that the Sacred Heart kept her alive. Her doctor said he didn't know why she was living .
SSL : Do you remember the year that she died?
SRM: Yes, she died in 1960, the year that I went to Jeannette Hospital. SSL: Do you remember the years of your parents' deaths?
SRM: Yes, my father died on March,1922 and mother died in January,1923 . SSL: That's very close together.
SRM : Ten months apart; it was very hard. Vincent took on the responsibility very beautif ully, and took on a very wonderful outlook on life for the rest of the family . He was at their attention all during their lives . He died in 1972.
SSL : Yes, I remember that.
SRM : I missed him after that because he made it possible for me to go to see Jane, who was a semi-invalid and she lived in Gary, Indiana . At that time we had to go, you know two and two, and it was getting expensive to go and needing a companion to go each time. I just remember that was one of the first times that the community allowed a sister to go alone. And another incidence happened; I took Sr. Mary Hubert with me one time . We stayed at the convent; well it wasn't a convent. We stayed at the hospital, at the nurses' home. We found that it was an inconvenience for them to take care of us, so I was allowed to go alone and I stayed at home. I thought that was a privilege, because that was not a custom of the community to do that.
SSL : You mentioned Sr. Mary Hubert; she was your first cousin, wasn 't she?
SRM : Yes. Sr. Mary Hube rt's mother and my mother were sisters. Sr. Mary Hubert's mother married Warren Metzler; Warren Metzler's grandson is now the pastor at the Wilkinsburg church.
SSL : St. James.
SRM: St. James, Wilkinsburg .
SSL : What was your mother's family name/
SRM: Sherry, that is Sr. Mary Hubert's mother's name was Sherry, also. I don't remember if
I told you or not about the incidence, the Sherrys, in Wilkinsburg. My grandfather bought the property that was supposed to be the property for St. James Convent , not convent,
church.
SSL : Sister, would you begin again to tell me again about the purchase of the property for the church in Wilkinsburg .
SRM: Well, the church purchased property at 910 South Avenue . When they started to make their plans to build the church, the surrounding families felt that was not the place for a Catholic Church . So, they had to buy elsewhere and they purchased the property at Franklin Avenue where the church is now. At that time they had the school under the church and the church as on the second floor. My father was the last person to be carried to his funeral in that church . Then they started to build the new one.
SSL: Did you always live in St. James, Wilkinsburg parish?
SRM: Yes, I was born in Wilkinsburg, baptized in St. James Church and received my other Sacraments there . I was born on Rebecca Street, where my Uncle Nick Schneider's home was . He was the janitor for the parish; his wife was a Protestant. She was very active, however, in the church becausej of Uncle Nick's position, job. Then we moved to
1215 Rebecca St. and lived there until ,was 14 years of age . We moved back to 910
1
South Ave. where my grandfather owned th property. That is where I entered from .
My grandfather lived with us there and he died just a year before I entered. I was one of his special nieces ; whenever he would go to Ireland, he would always bring something back for me, and for another cousin who had an accident and had a leg amputation . The two of us were his special nieces.
SSL: Your sister Mary is the sister you visit out in Arizona , isn 't she? SRM: Yes... No. She lives out in San Mattia, CA.
SSL: Who lives in Arizona that's related to you?
SRM: Leo's oldest girl, Anna. She's Mrs. Campbell now. She lives there; she doesn't live too far from where Sr. Harold Ann's mother lives. When I was out there I visited Sr. Harold Ann's mother. She lives in one of the homes for the elderly. Then Jane's two children, Billie and Jane live in CA. Billie is a doctor in nuclear medicine; he seems to be very successful out there. Janie is a housewife, but I learned just a short ago that she took a course in real estate and now she is doing real estate. She is following one of the traditions of the
family; my father was a real estate man. It is fortunate that Marian is out there because she has really been the mother to those two children. Jane is an invalid; Marian never married and lived with Jane. So, she was really like the mother. Their father said that to me one time .
SSL: What was Jane's married name, Sister?
SRM: Jane McLaughlin, she was Mrs. Jane McLaughlin . SSL: Her husband is also dead?
SRM: No, my sister lives there with him. You know, for two names to be on the mailbox, at this date . . . but, it is a very satisfactory situation because Marian lived with them for 35 years before Jane died. And so when Jane died, I said to Bill, "Wha t's going to happen to Marian?" He said,"Well she's been with us for 35 years; why, she is going to stay."
Bill's mother wanted to move in with him; so Marian moved to a furnished apartment. But after Bill retired he couldn't take Marian to work anymore like he was. He had been an executive at the Steel Co. and could take Marian to her office out on Lake Michigan; after work he would bring her home. After he retired he didn't have that privilege of taking her because those mills are miles from their parking lots. It was very hard on Marian's health because she had a condition they call bronchitis. So, when Bill retired, Vincent encouraged Marian to retire also . But, she was not old enough and she had only been with Steel Co. 24 years; she had to be there to get a pension. Through her supervisor after a year, why, she got a disability pension. So when they moved out to CA they found an apartment that was very suitable for that type of living. They live in a condominium in San Mattia and are very happy. Both of them are semi or partially, well not invalid, but both have difficulties with their health . They are help for each other; it is a 50/50 proposition. Each have their own ideas and ways, but they are very close, like brother and sister and it is really a very beautiful situation. And it is a consolation to me because, I can't be near Marian. She is the only other member of the family living. However, she calls me every week, so I am close in that way.
SSL: Thank you Sister for all that wonderful account of a very great family. I think now, if you will, I would like if you would continue with the discussion of your apostolic life in the congregation . And especially, I'd like if you would tell us about the involvement that you had with the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg. You made mention of that yesterday, but perhaps you'd like to tell a bit more about it today.
SRM: Well, it started first when Fr. Linus asked Mother Claudia if she could send him a Sister to do family visiting and she sent me. I was with Father for six years. We did quite extensive work in the parish because I walked the streets of Greensburg from up where the Chancery is now, to clear over to where St. Paul School is now. And that you know is, well, I think, the Chancery is very far East from here and St. Paul's is West. I had some very interesting things happen with my family visiting with Fr. Linus. I would visit every family, the poor, the rich, the sick. I was not a social worker; I was just a family visitor and I would report back to Father and he would take up anything that would be necessary for him to do. We would sometimes go and find somebody a house ; he would be active in doing these things . Sometimes we had to help furnish the houses that we got for these people. There were many occasions that happened . It would take a long time to discuss what happened in the family visiting. But I had six happy years and met very many. There is one thing I would like to mention and that is: if I had to visit any questionable place, I would ask Mrs. Clarence Robertson to go with me, since I was alone. Then another time, about being alone, I was coming up Bryant St. and Fr. Reeves and Bishop Boyle passed me by in a car, but didn't pick me up. So, I walked the hill and when I got up to the top Fr. Reeves met me and said, "You'd better report to the Bishop why you were out alone ." And so I had to report to the Bishop why I was out alone . Anyhow, so many things happened, it would take too long.
But the outcome of that was really the establishment of the Catholic Charities, because Fr. Linus was the first Director of Catholic Charities . So I went into the Office of Catholic Charities and worked with Gertrude Wordlaw and with her visited the Pgh.
Catholic Charities, Roselia Foundling, St. Paul's Orphanage, Toner Institute, and the Good Shepherd Sisters on the Northside and also one in East Libe rty. Then, I went to Torrence with her because we would have to have contact with those in our work. Going back to the Little Sisters of the Poor, I had a little incidence there . Before I entered I worked for Shanahan Transfer and Storage Co. Mr. Shanahan wanted to get rid of one of his horses so he sent me to the Little Sisters of the Poor to ask the Sisters if they wanted this horse. So that is something about the Little Sisters of the Poor.
SSL: And so did the Little Sisters take the horse?
SRM: They did. And that is really one of, well, one instance of my apostolic work anyhow . SSL: And that was before you entered?
SRM: That was before I entered the horse.
SSL: I think you were involved in apostolic work at that time, too .
SRM: Oh, yes. I went to Torrence with her, too . We used those services many times during my stay with the Catholic Charities.
SSL: Sister, where was the office of the Catholic Charities at that time?
SRM : It was on North Main Street. It was the second floor in one of those buildings there. I don't know which building, but it was on the second floor of one of those on N. Main St.
SSL: Is it the building that is right on the corner?
SRM: No, it wasn 't on the corner; it was on the same side going down, as the church. It was just beyond the bridge.
SSL : I know that before the present Catholic Charities building was built, the Trinitarian Sisters had an office in one of the buildings down there on the corner and I thought that perhaps it was there that you began.
SRM : Well, no, I didn't know that building. Our building was just beyond the bridge below the Catholic Church. While there I was given the responsibility of finding babies for people who wanted to adopt children. I have at the present time, five that I am in contact with of those children. Those children I took to their homes or took the parents to Roselia to pick them up, or wherever we went ... one was from Westmoreland Hospital . Now they are themselves mothers and fathers. I know them and I visit them. There is one that is from, oh . . where Sr. Serafina was from.
SSL: Homer City?
SRM : Homer City. The Hamrocks, er no, the Knoches lived there. I took Andrew and Theresa to Roselia to pick up their child. I went to her graduation at Indiana, and then later I went to her wedding ; they had a set of twins. When the twins were coming the mother called me and said, "I want you to come up to give Miriam some support because she is going to have twins ." So they came and got me, and they had two lovely boys --- twins. Before that they had a little girl; she's in, I think upper grades now. In my album I have pictures of Miriam from when she was a baby until now in her home; they have a lovely home in Blairsvi lle. She is now the secretary for the Blairsville parish, SS. Simon and Jude. One of our sisters, who works there now, said she sees Miriam ever so often. Her husband is a teacher in the Blairsville school.
In Brenhauser, which is part of Blairsville, I have another, a boy, who was· adopted and came from Roselia. They wanted a child and the agency didn't get a child. I suggested that she take a foster child and then the agency would see how she is with children. There was a baby born at Westmoreland Hospital whose mother and father were going to be married, but they weren't going to marry for 6 mont3hs. So I took the baby to Mrs. Hamrock, just to keep the baby. Well, in the six months the mother and father came to get the baby and Josephine was very much upset because she became attached to this baby. It was not too long afterwards that Roselia had a baby, and Richard became their baby from Roselia .
SSL : And the parents of the other child took that child?
SRM : Yes, and they moved away. They moved to the central part of PA. So Josephine named her baby the same name as the baby she had. They weren't going to live near anyway and she named him Richard. I have been to their home several times. One day after Richard was 9 years old, she wanted another baby. By that time she had become too old, because there was an age limit regarding adopting a baby. They said you have one and so they didn't get her one.
But one day at our festival I saw her with a little baby in a scooter ; I said to her "Where did you get the baby?" She said, "It's mine." And I said, "Well, where did you get it?" I hadn't heard anything about it. She said, "Well, I don't know if the mother died or left them or what, but anyhow she had these two children, a boy and a girl. She had asked the father if she could adopt her... because he couldn't find anybody to take care of them. So she took the little girl. She didn't have the little girl very long when she thought, "Well, why separate the little boy and girl?" So, she adopted the two. Then she had three adopted children . Richard is married and has his own family. Franklin is the
boy and he is now in a vocational school ; he doing some kind of work. And the girl, we. . ., she's been a little problem and it has saddened Josephine some. The last time I visited, the little girl came back to be with her adopted mother. In the meantime, the father was injured in the mines. Then, not too long ago, he had a stroke; so, she has a sad life now. Anyhow , I hear from her all the time; at Easter and Christmas, I always get a box of candy.
SSL : Sister, I wonder, you said that you were involved in that kind of work for six years . Were you involved in that full time ; were you teaching at the college and doing that as another assignment?
SRM: Well, see I had a year off. When Mother sent me, I was given a year because Sr. Ann Elizabeth had taken over the department.
SSL : Were you the chairman of the department before Sister? SRM: No.
SSL: You were never the chairman?
SRM: No, never the chairman. Miss Sanders was the first one at the college, and then Sr. Ann Elizabeth. When she finished, she became the chairman and Miss Sanders went to Indiana University.
SSL : So, you were full time in the Catholic Charities just that one year. You said you had a one year sabbatical.
SRM: Now, that was in my family visiting . SSL : Your family visiting? I see.
SRM: I didn't have any. . . No, I did part time in the Catholic Charities .
SSL: That one year that you were doing full time with the family visiting and that experience really led you into the Catholic Charities. The work you did with Catholic Charities you did on a part time basis and at the same time you were teaching at the college.
SRM: Yes, after Gertrude left, I stilled worked some with Mrs. McDonough who was the second person who took over before the Catholic Charities .
SSL: What was her first name?
SRM: I don't remember.
SSL: Well, Gertrude 's last mane was Wardlaw. Would you spell her last name for me please? SRM : WARDLAW, Wardlaw . She was Gertrude.
SSL: Was she a married lady? SRM: No. She went to Seton Hill.
SSL: She went to Seton Hill and that was her maiden name, so she never married?
SRM: No. Well, another thing that happened when I was in family visiting . . . I'll go back to family visiting since I think that was nice and familiar. I had to go with a woman to the hospital in an ambulance and she gave me money to keep . Well, I wasn 't too old at the time so I took the money and took it up to Sr. Jane Elizabeth and she kept it, but I had to have a signature from the woman that I had the money. So I went to the hospital, but Ms. Irwin was the Administrator and she was rather strict and wouldn't let you go to visit a patient outside of visiting hours. However, I went and the woman wasn't allowed to have visitors . I can't quite remember the final thing , but I know I took the money to . . . .
SSL: Sr. Jane Elizabeth was the treasurer of the community?
SRM: Yes. As I said I visited people and well, it was just the regular family visiting , as far as Catholic Charities are concerned. Then, I left to go back full time at the college. When Sr. Ann Elizabeth died, Sr. Rose Angela asked me to go back full time and to give up that.
But I never gave up my visiting people or having contact with them. I made lots of nice friends in that time.
SSL: And they've been very faithful to you because you've been so faithful to them. SRM: Yes, they have been good to me.
SSL: Sister , perhaps now you could tell us something about the wonderful years of your experience in catechetical work and something about those families who are pictured in that album that you showed to me yesterday. We can't take time to discuss every one at length, but perhaps you'd like to tell just a little bit about that and tell the great experiences that you had as a teacher in the Catechetical Program in the diocese.
SRM: Well, in 1929, we all went out; I imagine there were 20 sisters who went out all over Westmoreland County to teach Sunday School. Mrs. Dingies,? from Pittsburgh, organized it because we didn't have a diocese then and so I taught in Avonmore . On the way home from Avonmore I stopped in Slickville to teach catechism to some members of a family. I think I did tell you about the beginning of that in this Anna from the college having a visitor . That is how I got in contact with the Slickville group. He introduced me to that family and I would stop on my way home from Avonmore and teach two boys who were not married. They were in High School and I prepared them for their First Holy Communion . The other members were all married and all out of the church as far as the Sacraments were concerned. There was only of them, five girls and three boys, who was
married by a priest. The rest of them were married by squires; so, one by one, they came to me to have their marriages "Fixed up". Carmen Luzzetti, the boy, was really responsible for getting all of this going because he was very much in conflict ?? with family now.
Not too long ago, when I was visiting one woman, a member of the family, told me that I visited their home for the first time when their son was 2 years old; he died a couple years ago at 45. That was one of the first times that I had met one of the families. . . .
They lived on a farm and there was this, well, we'd call it the mother house up on the top of the hill. Then, down on the road, there were a couple (two)houses where two sons lived. So I used to call it the mother house; I'd teach at the mother house.
And then I taught some others that came in with friends, I have in my album. I started the pictures of that family because many years ago I taught them and the
husband of one I taught was in the hospital and I had their marriage "fixed" while he was in the hospital. So, as I said before, the grace of God flows from one to the other. It's marvelous how you plant seed and how it grows.
SSL: I think you named your album, "The Flow of Grace" didn't you?
SRM: I think it is something like that or God's grace, I forget what it was. Let's see, I have it here
...."The Flow of God's Grace".
SSL: That is a very beautiful way to identify an album that really records the history.
SRM: Well, see in that album, I have tried to have pictures of each family that I have had contact with, though not all, but some of them . There was a very interesting one that just happened last year. In the hospital there was a woman; well, she died and her husband was very lonely. I learned to know the family very well because that woman was in and out of the hospital. She had a leg amputation, was taken home and died. Her husband , Frank LeCor? was very down and lonesome. He used to call me and tell me how lonesome he was and then his friends got him to go out a little bit. He got himself working with the Senior citizens in St. Mary's Parish in Export. Then, too, he had a friend whose wife had a friend who was a widow; so he got them together. When he was out with this woman he talked about Sr. Rose Marie. She knew a Sr. Rose Marie, but she never connected Sr. Rose Marie with his. One day he mentioned something about the hospital and she said, "Why, that's my friend Sr. Rose Marie! I knew her 40 years ago when she was one of the group that I knew in Slickville". That was when I first taught out in Slickville. So, this Thanksgiving a year ago, they invited me to go to her home for Thanksgiving dinner; the two families live together . Wait a minute, I always forget Maimee's name, her last name before she got married; now she is Mrs. LeCor?. They ended up being married in January. So they have been very good to me since they are married. I was the only outsider besides the bridegroom or not the. . . .
SSL: the attendants?
SRM : Yes, the attendants , I was the only outsider at that wedding . Just the day before yesterday I got a card from them down in Florida. So you can see how things just come together. It so happens that the woman, Lena, is a sister to one of the Maranellis?, the family that I had developed from 50 years ago. So it puts Frank LeCor? into the Moranelli group.
SSL : Where did you meet Frank LeCor?
SRM : Well, his wife was ill and she was in and out of the hospital; she had diabetes . A bad thing happened, too , that made Frank very sad. About three years after his mother died, he became blind; he had diabetes, also . He had lost the sight in one eye; then he lost the sight in his second eye. He went to a school for the blind and passed through school and now? he's at Pitt. He was working towards a career for the blind but then he got a kidney condition and died. Frank and his son, John, were very close; they worked closely
together . He had one child; I was at the child's Baptism. The thing that made Frank more sad was the fact that John's wife had been cremated . So, he would come with all these sad stories. When I was the hospital they?? came to visit me and when I came back here to Assumption Hall they?? came to visit me.
SSL : Sister, a little while ago, when we weren't recording you were telling me something about Denis, one of the sons of Frank LeCor?. It was an interesting story; perhaps you'd like to make a record of that now.
SRM : Denis worked for a company in Jeannette and was laid off permanen tly. When he was out looking for a job, he passed Kirner's in Pittsburgh. He said to himself, 'I'm going to get the kids a medal." So he went in and he picked up a book on the Blessed Mother and the rosary. He said after reading through the book, he took it home and said, "I should be saying the rosary." So, he started saying the rosary. I don't know if he'd ever said the rosary before, but anyhow he started to say the rosary. Now, he says three rosaries a day; one of those rosaries is said with his wife at 7p.m. when it is on the radio. Also, he goes to Mass every morning. He is in his late thirties and has three children. He brought his assistant pastor over to see me about two weeks ago. Fr. Persico was sitting out in the hall, when Denis came along with this priest. I don't know what the priest's name is, but it's Fr. Al ---
SSL: What parish is that?
SRM: Our Lady of Joy, in or near Murrysville. It's in the Pittsburgh Diocese; just over the border from Murrysville. Well, anyhow, now that he is not working, one of his things is he goes to the flea market where he saw a statue of the Blessed Mother. Now, he's very devoted to the Blessed Mother; he saw this statue of the Blessed Mother whose neck was broken.
He bought it for fifty cents; he brought it home, fixed the neck and painted it. You really wouldn't know that it didn't just come from the store; it's so beautifully done. But, he brought it to me.
SSL: Oh, isn't that nice.
SRM : Continuing that story of the statue, he found another religious statue and he was painting it. A man saw him painting these statues and he gave him a statue to paint and paid him for it, which helped him a little bit. In return, he said about the Blessed Mother in
October he didn't have enough money to his pay his rent. In the book he had read that the Blessed Mother answered a lot of prayers. So he said to her, "I haven't any money to pay my rent, could you find a way for me to get money?" A short time after a man asked him if he could paint the gutters in his house. So Denis painted the gutters and got enough money to pay his rent from that. That money was through the Blessed Mother!
SSL: I think you said that his unemployment , in a sense, has been a blessing for him, since it has brought him closer to God and closer to the Blessed Mother.
SRM: That's true , right.
SSL: Sister , you told us about John, Mr. LeCor's son who became blind and eventually died after his serious illness and who was cremated at the wish of his wife. You mentioned that he had a son Denis, about whom you've been talking. Did he have any other children?
SRM: He has a son that lives in Texas and a daughter that lives in Pgh. The one in Texas and the one in Pgh. are twins . John is the oldest of his boys.
SSL: He's the one who died?
SRM: He's the one who had the kidney condition and died. SSL: Where do Mr. and Mrs. LeCor? live now?
SRM: He lives in Export. Lena had a home in Slickville ; then she moved into his home because he built the home himself. He was very much attached to that home because it is a little bigger and simpler than Lena's.
Of.I 11-2-
This interview is being conducted as part of the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Rose Marie Schneider. The interviewer is Sister Sara Louise Reilly. This is the third session of interviews with Sister Rose Marie. Today is Wednesday April 20, 1983. The interview is being conducted at Assumption Hall.
SSL: Sister Rose Marie, you were one of the sisters who came to Assumption Hall in the beginning of its history . Would you like to tell us something about your work here in Assumption Hall in those days?
SRM: Well, how I got here was not as a patient, exactly, though I did have a throat condition and was not allowed to teach anymore . I had been at Blairsville for eight months in silence and they assigned me to come here. Not having any illness that would keep me in my room or bed- ridden, why, I "puttsied" around in the kitchen with Sr. Regis. Sr. Regis had been at Seton Hill and I taught her. She assigned me to a job in the area of the kitchen, in the storage room. All of the supplies from the infirmary at Seton Hill had been brought to Assumption Hall and put in this room without being organized in any way. So Sr. Regis gave me the job of organizing the storage. We ordered shelves and I continued there .
That resulted in my being involved in the kitchen proper. I took care of the diets; we served the sisters in the infirmary from a hot cart. That was given to me as a responsibility
-to serve the trays on the third floor. There I continued for five years. I had a happy five years because we lived the real community life. We had the old sisters who were not ill, but were old; we had recreation every night. Some of the sisters would play Old Maid and other games; we just were really happy, living there at that time .
Then, the novices at that time had to come to Assumption Hall for jobs and some of them worked with me on the third flo or. Now, ever so often, I hear from some
of them because they remember little things that I did or things that I said. So I still have contact with those novices who worked with me. I felt that it was very profitable for them to be here, too, from the standpoint of community. The old sisters reminisced and some could remember back to the beginning of the community .
At the time there was one of my own family here, Sr. Mary Hubert Metzler, who was my mother's niece; her mother and my mother were sisters. So there are very many happy memories here at Assumption Hall. Mother Eveline was here, Sr. Mary Edna, Sr. Mary Francis and Sr. ,Ican't remember her name.
SSL: Sister, you said Sr. Mary Francis, that was Sr. Marie Francis, wasn't it?
SRM: Yes, Marie Francis, and Sr. _ _ _ _ _ , she used to be Treasurer at Seton Hill. We had
a very lovely association with those old sisters. We'd all go down to prepare vegetables for dinner and things like that. We really had a very happy family here.
Then, all of a sudden, I happened to have a vacation with my sister in Gary, IN. She had been an invalid for fifteen years . . . Jane Schneider, who had been an Academy graduate. Mother Claudia sent me a letter saying that I could have another week with Jane and then I was being sent to Jeannette Hospital where they could use me. She said the work in the kitchen was going on smoothly, so I could go to Jeanne tte. But she told Sr. Geraldine not to put me in the kitchen. I had been teaching Home Economics
in the food service area for about 25 years, so Sr. Geraldine didn't know what to do with me. It took her about two or three weeks of opening packages and getting ready to open the hospital while she was trying to find out what she could give me to do. So, when she was finally ready to actually start the hospital, she decided to make me the Executive Housekeeper. I was that for 13 years. I did my work in supervision in that work by visiting patients and through that I did some apostolic work. Instead of going with a pencil and pen to find out what was wrong, while I was visiting I would look around and see what needed to be done. At the meeting, I would bring this up.
We had working there a group of women who were real housekeepers of a home
and it became like a family. They had a lot of initiative and a lot of ambition; we became a real close fa mily. They used to get together maybe twice a year and invite all the sisters, have games and they'd have beautiful prizes. One thing we got as a benefit was that Sr. Geraldine, the administrator of the hospital, was always there at the supper and the girls got to know another side of Sister, other than as an administrator . They realized that when she passed us in the hall she couldn't be greeting us as though we were at recreation. So, we really were a very close knit group, that is, the Sisters and the employees at the hospital.
Then, after 13 years, well during those 13 years, I did a little bit of apostolic work.
They would ask me questions and I would answer them naturally and as a result, we had converts. We had some real converts and then we had some who were brought back into the Church. It was very satisfying to be able to do that kind of work as well as supervising housekeeping. Then , when I became 75 years old, it was decided that it was time to change my job because the hospital was getting larger with more employees and situations were getting a little harder. So, Sister Geraldine , God love her, found a job that was very productive for me during the rest of my time at the hospital. They were backlogged in microfilming of their medical records and she asked me if I would take over the microfilming of records in the Medical Records Department. So with some volunteers , and those volunteers were professional women , we worked. Some were secretaries from industry and some were our own students. We had Mary Dolan, who was a student from our Academy and College, Leann , Anastine , Hildegarde Lutz,
who had been a student of mine and Hildegarde's sister, Mary Harlgone, who had been a secretary from one of the institutions in the area. We had a lovely department and extended our microfilming from the Medical Records to Laboratory, the Business Office and X ray. When I was 82 years old somebody made the statement that "surely they don't have an 82 year old person on the payroll." And so the Board decided not too long afterwards that everyone who was 65 years old was to retire. Well, that included our Sisters Mary Cephas, Mary Magdalene, Norberta and Rose Marie. It happened that the government made a ruling that you could not force a person to retire until he or she was 70 years old, so that released Sr. Norberta from that obligation because she was only 66. But, three pf us had to retire. So, I came back to Assumption Hall and I have been here now almost five years.
SSL: So you came first in 1954; you were here until 1959 and came back in what year?
SRM: 1978. They were only open six months when I came here and the Bishop had made the remark at the Mass of Dedication that this was the stepping stone to eternity. I have come to realize in my five years here that it is a place to prepare for eternity. I have had many opportunities to do just that because we have been given many opportunities of the chapel and our chaplain. We have been able to prepare.
SSL: Well, you've been preparing all these years not just these last five years. One of the things which I think is very significant, as you talk, Sister, is you are always concerned with establishing community whether it is the sisters with whom you're living or those people with whom you are wo king. You commented each time that this is a very significant feature of your life. So, you really have been preparing all these years, not just these last five years, though you have had some special opportunities in these years.
SRM : Well, I hope that I will be prepared. Because you know, Sister, with all the anxiety of the world and all the things that are going on today, you just get yourself so frustrated sometimes . You don't know whether you are on the right road or not! However, it is a good place to try, anyway.
SSL: As you look back through all these years, Sister, are there certain Sisters who you had an association with and you feel a particular influence on your life or about whom you might want to say something else. You mentioned some earlier, I think in the first session that we had. Perhaps you want to look back over some of that now and see.
SRM: Well, Sister, I think maybe I said before that my introduction to Seton Hill was through Sr.
Estelle Lowe, the blood sister of Mother Aloysia Lowe. When I came to visit her she asked me if I would like to come there to school. Well, she sent me to Sr. Francesca Brownlee, who was the Directress of the Academy; she gave me literature. She sent Sr. Stanislaus and Sr. Francesca to visit my parents . Then in August my parents decided that they would see about sending me to school, and they would .
After I landed there Sr. Stanislaus took me under her wing and certainly did guide me on the right track. However, as my father had said when he visited before I came, that he thought I might be a sister. Well, he told the Sisters that and it was probably the wrong thing, because they had it in their minds that I was going to be a Sister and I had to do this properly and do that properly. If I did anything that was out of the way, then I was warned that I couldn't be a Sister if I did things like that. So Sr. Stanislaus was the one who was
really my inspiration at the beginning. I became very close to the Sisters. For instance, at the time we were going to Duquesne for school. They would be acquainted with my family and sometimes my father would take them back to Seton Hill after school. One time we almost had a fatal accident because the certain road going from Pittsburgh to Greensburg was the Old Lincoln Highway and a motorcycle came toward us. I don't know how my father controlled the car. I had Sisters Francesca, Francis, Stanislaus and Maria Francesca in the car. I don't know how my father kept the car on the road, but finally we were safe. Those were a few things I remember about those Sisters . Sr. Stanislaus kept close tabs on me. I went to Pgh. after I graduated for advice from a priest at St.
Augustine's. Sr. Stanislaus was afraid that they were leading me away from Seton Hill and so she invited me to make a retreat at Seton Hill; I had just made a mission at the church and when I mentioned it to the priest, he said "don't take too many. . ." don't have too much piety. . . ." I don't know just how he put it, but he said that I had just had a mission and that was enough right now. And so St. Stanislaus was afraid that I was going to be a Franciscan instead a Sister of Charity. However, I don't know if I told you about the visit that my father's boss did about me. He took me to see the Mercy Sisters because he had two daughters in that community. He took me to the Ursulines and to the Franciscans. He was going to take me to see the Sisters of St. Joseph also, but he had to go to Europe for some reason and when he came back I told him not to bother taking me any place else because I was going to be a Sister of Charity. That was Mr. McCafferty, who had a daughter who was a Seton Hill graduate. So I became a Sister of Charity.
SSL: Well, we're glad you came to us.
SRM: Well, as far as the others Sisters... Sr. Electa and I were very close; we were good friends. We'd talk things over every once in a while. And Sr. Francesca Brownlee... again, repeating things you know. I don't know if I told you about sister's relationship/ acquaintance with my mother. You know, when we were in the Academy we didn't know the Sisters' names before they became sisters, but I knew Sr. Francesca's name; she was Marcella Brownlee. When I went home I said to my mother, "Oh, do you know what our Directress's name was before she became a Sister? Her name was Marcella Brownlee." And she said, "That name sounds very familiar to me." So when I came back to school I said to Sr. Francesca, "Did you know anyone by the name of Theresa Sherry; that was my mother's name before she got married?" She said the name sounded familiar, so I asked if she ever lived in Wilkinsburg . She said, "Oh, yes I used to go visit the McGraws. The McGraw girls went to Seton Hill and she used to go home with them and my mother was a very close friend of the McGraws. So my mother knew Sr. Francesca in that way.
They never really knew each other after that, but they became associated in that way. So, I had a closer contact with Sr.Francesca because she knew my mother at one time.
And I'm afraid , well, I shouldn't say afraid but, I think that maybe had some influence on my becoming an Home Economics teacher because she was more interested in my family then and the things that my parents would tell her about my working at home. For instance, my mother was very ill and she had to go away to the mountains afterwards for recuperation ; I kept house for my father when I was only 13 years old. So I think that was in Sr. Francesca's mind when she needed an Home Economics teacher and picked me to go to school at Columbia where I worked and got my Masters degree in Home Economics there . So I've had a very active life at Seton Hill and the Sisters are very dear to me. I think I have to thank them for what I am now. Lord knows what I am, but I know they helped me to be what I am anyway .
SSL : Well, you've certainly had a very full life, Sr. Rose Marie. Y ou' ve related so many differen t kinds of experiences and in addition to your very great concern to establish community. I think you have been very much an Apostolic person. I'm recalling now about when you were at Jeannette and working with administrating the housekeeping that you found that as a means of making friends and helping other people apostoli cly. So I think that we have much to be grateful for that we have someone like you among our members and I feel particularly privileged to have been allowed to visit you, interview you and to learn about those experiences . I know that there were times through this interview that you said "I am grateful for", and maybe you would like to just close this interview by saying whatever it is that you would like to say after these years. How many years now, have you been in religion?
SRM : 64. It will be 64 next August.
SSL: So as you look back over those years , first an Academy student and then as a member of the Congregation, what would like to say?
SRM : My most satisfying, I suppose, or the one that has done most for my spiritual life, I think, was my first experiences with family visiting, my confraternity work and my work with Catholic Charities. I just met one of the women that belongs to the Children's Department in the Courthouse, who reminded me of my association with her through Catholic Charities. Her daughter, Rebecca ,Ijust can't think of her name, it was just on my mind.
Anyhow, she was a student of mine and a person just recently made a remark to her that she had worked with me in Catholic Charities. So I feel that the most influential, most satisfying and most beneficial thing in my life has been my contact with people. I would almost say with souls because my life has been that.
Now I have kept up an album of my work with those families, but I could only put in the album the social life that I had with these families. However, it is the spiritual contact more than the social, since I was invited always as a Sister. Because I was with those families, and there have been so many sorrows and so many catastrophes that have been very sad, and I have been a part of all of that. That's what has been my life.
SSM : So, you've been a Sister of Charity . All of those things are very beautiful and I am sure those people will be eternally grateful to you as you are eternally grateful for having been allowed to be of so much help to th em.
SRM:
SSL :
SRM: SSL:
I never would have had those opportunities had I stayed in the world . I don't know whether I mentioned the fact that when my mother and father died 10 months apart, my brother said to me,"They needed me where I was." Because my relatives thought that I should go home and help keep house, but my brother said,"They needed her more where she is".
And through all the years , 50 or more, he has shown that he meant that , because he always depended on me as a Sister .
And finally, I'm sure that we would conclude with a prayer of gratitude to God for all the blessings of these many years .
And I want thank you for interviewing me and giving me the opportunity to reminisce .
It has been a very beautiful experience for me, Sister, and l"m grateful to you. I know you continue to remember in your prayers all of the Sisters of Charity and we're happy to know that we have you and so many others praying here. God bless you .
Original Format
Audio cassette tape
Duration
46:42
46:43
37:07
46:43
37:07
Bit Rate/Frequency
96kHz
Collection
Tags
Other Media
Citation
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, “Oral History: Sister Rose Marie Schneider,” Collections of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, accessed April 18, 2024, https://scsharchives.com/items/show/721.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.