Oral History: Sister Teresa Clare Kernan
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Sister Teresa Clare Kernan
Subject
Sister Teresa Clare Kernan
Description
An oral history of Sister Teresa Clare Kernan, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1923 until 1989. The interview was conducted by Sister Paul Gabriel Wilhere on August 24, 1982.
Sister Teresa Clare Kernan - born Margaret Anne Kernan on October 5, 1903 - entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in February of 1923. Sister Teresa Clare received a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1930. She continued her studies there and went on to receive a master's degree in English education in 1937 and a doctorate in the same subject in 1949. Sister Teresa Clare served as a supervisor of schools and was based at St. Anselm Elementary School in this capacity from 1945-1952. She then taught English at Sacred Heart Elementary School from 1952-1957, returning as Sister Servant and Principal from 1963-1968. Sister Teresa Clare also served as a Councilor and Director of Education from 1957-1963, later serving as Seton Hill College's archivist from 1968-1981. Sister Teresa Clare Kernan died on March 29, 1989.
Creator
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Publisher
Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Date
1982/08/24
Rights
All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Format
Audio cassette tape
Type
Oral history
Identifier
OH-29
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sister Paul Gabriel Wilhere
Interviewee
Sister Teresa Clare Kernan
Transcription
OH29-1
This interview is being conducted as part of the oral history program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Teresa Clare Kernan. The interview is being conducted by Sister Paul Gabriel Wilhere at Assumption Hall. The date is August 24, 1982.
SPGW: This is August 1982. We are at Assumption Hall getting an Oral History on Sister Teresa Clare Kernan. We are involved in getting Oral Histories on a number in the community. So I am pleased to be allowed to interview you because I hope to find out some things that I don' t know. Sister Teresa Clare, where do you come in your own family?
STCK: Well, I am the eighth child often. But, the last two died as infants. So I always say I was a baby three times. I think that accounts for some of the things that you'll learn.
SPGW: What about the older members of your family?
STCK: Well, we had John and Ray who are the oldest of the family. No, Nellie was the oldest. I'm sorry. Nellie was the oldest and then John and Ray and Father Jim, and then Julia and Frank and Mary and I. Of that whole group, Mary and I are the only two now living.
SPGW: Mary worked in a...
STCK: She worked in a city department from high school. She went to school at Peabody High and had a position there before she graduated and continued to work there for a number of years until it became necessary for somebody to be at home with mother and unpaid who could drive the car and so Mary stayed home for a number of years. She didn't go back to work until she went to Sacred Heart as one of the office secretaries.
SPGW: You and Mary have always been very close. I remember reunions at Oakmont where it seemed several generations gathered. Everybody belonging to everybody else.
STCK: That's right. It's a strong family feeling from the youngest. I can remember one of our youngest ones one time at one of the family reunions just stood and looked at everybody and then she went to her Dad and she said, "Do they all belong to me?" That's very characteristic. I think the whole family feels that way. We all belong to each other.
That' s good.
SPGW: You mentioned Father Jim. His last assignment was as Pastor of Saint Luke's which was with our sisters.
STCK: That's right. He was there as Pastor until he had to retire at the age of 75 according to the Diocesan regulations although he felt he could have continued for another few years. But he did remain there at Saint Luke's and died in 1981.
SPGW: He wrote a family history, I understand, it's available ifwe want to know more about
the Kemans.
STCK: That's right. And his history is well done.
SPGW: I would expect it to be. How did your parents feel about your entering?
STCK: Well, my father was dead, but I don't think that would have brought him any pain and my mother was very happy about it. But, I was only 16 when I finished high school and she thought that was too young, so she told me if I waited until I was 18, she would be happier than if I were to go at 16. I was glad I did because in that interim time after high school I had a semester that I stayed home and helped at home because mother wasn't very well and somebody had to be in the house. Then I got into the teacher training school, which I probably would not have done, if I had gone right out of high school, you know. It was in that time that I learned about it and made application and was accepted and I graduated from there at the end of January 1923. I entered on the 2nd of February 1923. So, it was like a continuous education.
SPGW: You entered from Saint Kieran Parish. Did you always live there?
STCK: Yes. My father built the house that we lived in before he was married. He brought my mother there as a bride. My mother didn't live any place except that until after most of the family was dead and Jack built two small houses, one for him and one for mother. Those two are around Saint Mary's, so we really never left Saint Mary's, which is in the East End of Pittsburgh. The lands join to the same side of the road.
SPGW: You said you entered from Saint Kieran's. Were you taught by the Sisters of Charity there?
STCK: Oh, yes. The Sisters of Charity had come there early in the history of the community in the Pittsburgh Diocese. I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was a well established school when I went to it. Sister Zita was the Principal there when I was there. She was there for a number of years. She was related to Father Doyle who was our Pastor. There always seemed to be somebody of that relationship at Saint Kieran's Convent, and that was good. I think it was a good thing.
SPGW: What year did you say you entered? STCK: I entered on February 2, 1923.
SPGW: What was happening,just as a matter of interest and history, can you remember any of the things that were happening either in the city or in your neighborhood and in the country at that point?
STCK: The First World War had just ended. All the time I was in high school we were, you
know, making things for the soldiers. Father Coakley, who had been our Principal, went as a Chaplain and he sent us some forms of what was taking place and what the needs were. So all through high school time we were either making bandages or we were knitting or we were doing something to help in the First World War. So the City was just really recovering from the First World War by 1923. So in the industries, there weren't many men, particularly the steel mills, and then that had quieted down a little bit at that time. There was no depression or anything. The aftermath of the World War I was not the best thing.
SPGW: What kind of work did your father do?
STCK: My father was a brick layer , but he was a, I think what you would call an industrial brick layer. In other words, he had learned the trade in England, where he was from. He was born there and educated there and learned his trade there. Then when they came to this country and the steel mills were beginning to be, he was hired by Andrew Carnegie, in one of the first steel mills. They were the men who lined the furnaces with fire brick to make the steel, the grade of steel that they wanted. So it was a very professional job.
He trained all the other men who worked under him to do that particular kind of thing. (As I remember, when he' d be reading a newspaper or a magazine or a book or anything , around the margins you could always tell about where he stopped because there would be a little snitch in pencil around that). A new kind of ceiling where the brick would merge in a certain way and there would be different kinds of arches and what have you at the part of seaming because the draft of the air to purify the steel, the iron as it was being converted into steel, had to be exact and that was the bricklayer's job. So it was always considered an important job in the steel mill. He and Andy Carnegie were on first term speaking thoughts. That's how close it was to the beginning of the steel mills and making an empire of steel in Pittsburgh.
SPGW: Did any of your brothers follow that line of work?
STCK: Yes. My oldest brother, Jack (John), and Ray both followed in his footsteps. They were trained under him and became expert bricklayers themselves. During the First World War, Jack went to the Army and was in service overseas in England. Ray took my father' s place in the mill. He was the Superintendent. When Jack came back from the service, Ray was already installed because Ray had married and Jack thought that that should be his place. So, Jack then went into independent work as a bricklayer and he went into construction work himself. He never went back to the steel mill after that.
He developed the John J. Kernan Construction Company.
SPGW: About the community, who was the Mother Superior when you petitioned to enter? In those days did you have to come up and asked to join the community?
STCK: Yes. I came up. I remember I came in the summer. Because Sister Barbara, I was going to be Sister Barbara's postulant. Sister Barbara was from Saint Kieran. Her
brothers had also worked in the steel mills with my father. Sister Barbara and Sister Charlotte Judge were both from Saint Kieran. In fact, I saw both of them, but I was Sister Barbara's postulant because she was the older of the two. That was in the summer of '22 when I petitioned, but I didn't enter until '23 because it was the decision of the superiors at that time that I should finish the teacher training program and graduate.
SPGW: Who was the Mother Superior? Do you remember?
STCK: She died in office. Mother... (Mother Mary Raymond Creed - transcriber's note) SPGW: It was not Josephine?
STCK: No, later than that. I should remember because I looked it up.
SPGW: What do you remember about your postulancy? Now in 1982, postulancies are very different. I think it would be interesting to know what your's was like.
STCK: I enjoyed my postulancy very much.
SPGW: Did you change clothes the day you entered?
STCK: Yes. In fact, we had a funny experience coming. Father Jim, and Mother, and Mary and I came up together. The only means of transportation was by train. So, we had taken the train that we thought to Greensburg. Here it turned out to be the one that went out on the cut off toward Oakmont and that section. So we had to come back to East Liberty. So by the time we arrived at Seton Hill, it was well after seven o'clock at night.
SPGW: Oh, my.
STCK: They thought I got along the way and decided not to come or something like that.
They often teased me about it as the years went on in the novitiate.
SPGW: Did you have your supper?
STCK: We called and told them that we had made this mistake and we were delayed. They said, "Now, don't stop and get supper any place. Come on up and we will have something for you." They had the table set up in the students' dining room and we all went in there to eat and the sisters came with us to accompany us. Then they took me upstairs and had me dress as a postulant before Mother and Father and Mary left so they'd see me. So by that time, it was almost time for night prayers and so that's as much as I had on the first night.
SPGW: What was the postulant dress?
STCK: A plain. It was made at home. Aunt Peg made it. It was a plain black dress. It buttoned up on the shoulder and down the one side. It had a little white sash across the one shoulder. Now the cape, which had also been made at home; it came down to our ankles. We were very comfortable and all looked very nice. They always wore a little white ribbon collar with it. The black dress had a high neck line and then that was just like a little edging on that. And the same way with the cuffs. The cuffs were just an edging on the long sleeves. I remember somebody in the family had done hemstitching on my cuffs. It looked very trim and neat. And the postulancy, you know, only lasted for a few months in those days. I entered in February and I received the habit in May, about three months. It would have been the extension, the ordinary extension. I could because I didn't think it was necessary, but that's the length of time it was for me.
During that time, some time in February, ifl remember, it must have been around the
12th or the 131 something about Lincoln's birthday, around that time, a sister became ill
who was teaching at Saint Mary's, so they asked ifl could go down and take her place in the boys school. So, I had everything from the first to the fourth grade in the boys school, which I liked very much.
SPGW: You always liked boys.
STCK: That's right. You know those little tots. We had a lot, I think something like 22 of them in the four grades. I remember them very well. I remember how excited they were when I was going to get the habit. You wouldn't think that would make any difference to them. But they were very excited. So I had one day that I was on retreat and then the next day I had the white cap on. So the next day when I went back to school with my white cap, they met me at the door and accompanied me into the classroom.
SPGW: What did they call you before you got the habit?
STCK: Sister. Sister Teresa. No, Sister Kernan. They used to call me Sister Kernan. Then, of course, I got Sister Teresa Clare for my name, and they liked that. I'm sure they changed it to suit me.
SPGW: Did you ask for your name?
STCK: No, but I was the first one to receive the habit following the beatification of the Little Flower. So, I was pretty sure... We were making a novena to her. I just felt that for sure they were going to put Teresa in some form. So I thought that Teresa Clare was a good combination.
SPGW: That's right. Was it a one year white cap novitiate?
STCK: Yes:
SPGW: What did you do that year? What did that entail? STCK: As a white cap, well we did...
SPGW: Did you continue teaching the boys?
STCK: I finished out the year with them. I got the habit in May and then I finished that term. Then in June, or in August, I didn't come back to Saint Mary's. We were supposed to learn to do all the kinds of household work that was necessary. That meant having charge of the kitchen and the dining room. At that moment, I was assigned to the priests' dining room. So, at least part of that year I was in the priests' dining room.
That was an art form itself. You know, at that time when we had a priests' dining room, but we had two priests and we had all the lay faculty.
SPGW: Men.
STCK: All the men from the lay faculty in the priests' dining room. That was on the ground floor of Saint Joseph Hall which had just been built and opened in the same year as I entered. So it was practically a brand new set up. But that's the way it was. There was a dining room on the west side of the building on the ground floor and a visitors' dining room across the hall from that. And as long as we worked there, I had the responsibility for the guests' dining room and also go out to the kitchen and get all the hot food and bring it in and do all that kind of thing. It was lots of fun. That was a part of the work. Then the other kinds of odd jobs that had to be done. You know.
The other novices who hadn't completed their high school were in class most of the time. So, a lot of odd jobs fell to me, I enjoyed that, one of them being the novitiate itself. Since I never liked to go to bed early, I used to do that charge after night prayers were over.
SPGW: How soon did you go out on mission?
STCK: I went out on mission the following year. I was a white cap for a year and then that summer I got the black cap, one year following the day I got the white cap. Then I was ready to go and the sisters went on mission in August. I went to Sheriden, Holy Innocents, my first assignment off the campus. So that would have been 1924. Is that right?
SPGW: That's right.
STCK: We were very welcome at Holy Innocents as well as necessary. I had the fourth grade to start with and that was a great treat. I really enjoyed that. Father Shields readers were being introduced about that time into the whole educational process and that was quite
an aberration from the old, completely phonetic method of teaching. It was a challenge to me as well as to the students to the way that they were taught. But, I think they learned.
SPGW: Yes. I know they did. You did go to Saturday school, though, as I remember. STCK: Yes.
SPGW: You and a very tall sister. STCK: Sister Mary Dolores?
SPGW: She died. No. Agnes...
STCK: Agnes Clare. Yes. That's right. We were both teachers at that time. I did go with sister later. Then I continued to go to Duquesne for Saturday class and I used to meet the sisters from Crafton. They were going to Duquesne. I got on the same train with them on Saturday mornings. In those days, there were Saturday morning trains. And then we' d get off at Fourth Avenue Station and walk up the hill to Duquesne. They would do the reverse about coming back. There was an afternoon train that we could get. It was convenient as far as Sheriden was concerned, and it was also convenient for Crafton. That's what I remember about going to Duquesne.
SPGW: This year we were talking about the 100th Anniversary of the Sisters coming to Seton Hill and then talking a great deal about Mother Seton, about Saint Vincent, and that sort of thing. What do you remember of the orientation of the spirit of the community in those days, was it pretty much oriented to Saint Vincent or were Mother Seton and Saint Vincent given equal seniority?
STCK: Saint Vincent's Day was the biggest day of the year outside of Christmas, as I recall, and that was always the 19th of July. You prayed a novena in preparation for it and everybody came and it was an exciting day for the whole community. A chance to see the total community. Of course, Mother Seton was always regarded with reverence, but she had not yet been made venerable, or beatified or canonized. That kind of, in other words, I've only known her by her pictures, very simple pictures of her hanging in the novitiate, and I think the community room had one too, picturing her in the black cap and the simple black dress which our postulants very much liked, a cap and a little bit of white trim. But I would say the orientation at that time was toward Saint Vincent because Mother Seton, her cause had not yet come into existence.
SPGW: Do you want to stop? STCK: No.
SPGW: We will continue. Since you taught novices 50 years ago, and continue to orient them to the community now, what were some of the contacts you've had with novices through the years?
STCK: Well, as a Supervisor of Schools, I had had them usually the previous year for orientation to classroom, like Introduction to Teaching or some place like that. Then when I went to their missions, I tried always to go if I knew they were brand new teachers in the school to be there as early as possible so that I could help them get oriented to the classroom. We would have lengthy discussions and lesson plans and all that kind of thing. They always said they were very helpful. Often times during my visit there, I would come in and have me take over and demonstrate a lesson so that they could pick up the method with their own children being there. Whatever way was possibleJ'd help them with their lesson plans and try to get... I'd try to have them to like to teach, like I liked to teach. I thought that was an important contribution to make, if I could help somebody else like to teach. I trained most of my novices.
SPGW: You used to say that most of the people you taught have learned to like to teach. You mentioned in the schools what was your educational role, was that in the diocese or in the community? When you were Supervisor of Schools.
STCK: Well, as a Supervisor of Schools, I was based in the diocese and in the community because at that time the diocese had a plan that there would be a supervisor in each school conducted by a particular community for every so many sisters. I don't remember at this point the exact number of sisters, but I would say off hand, maybe every 50 sisters. Maybe it was higher than that. It meant any community that had less than 50 sisters teaching in the diocese did not have a member of their own community who belonged to the board. If you did have, in our case we had, when I started out as a Supervisor. Sister Generosa and I were the active supervisors and then you'd have an older sister at Seton Hill who worked, to whom we reported regularly. Her name just went off of my head.
SPGW: Sister Norberta?
SICK: Norberta. OK. Sister Norberta had been the active supervisor. At that time she was no longer active, as least she didn't attend the meetings and she didn't do a lot of things, but she had a lot of contact with the sisters and always was very helpful with us. Any time we came back to Seton Hill, we would have a visit with her to bring her up to date with what was going on and ask her advice on whatever we were doing. So that kind of continuing contact with both the diocese and the community, I think was very good.
SPGW: When you say the diocese, the Pittsburgh Diocese then encompassed what is now... STCK: The Greensburg Diocese
SPGW: What about Altoona?
STCK: Altoona was also, we say, in the diocese. Remember all three of them were in the Diocese of Pittsburgh at one time. So we always continue to think of it that way. Then Altoona became a separate diocese.
SPGW: You supervised Altoona as well. When the schools opened out West, did they have their own supervisors?
STCK: No. They never had a person who resided there who·was the supervisor and so we made a trip at least once a year to the West and remained long enough that we would visit all of the schools and be whatever help we could be to these young... In those days, very young sisters, who had not yet been trained were rarely sent to the West. One advantage that they had was that they were all experienced teachers when they went.
SPGW: You mentioned working with Sister Generosa. Considering that it might be that her name may come up as we talk about the oral history. Sister Generosa...
STCK: Cuniff was her family name.
SPGW: And she transferred to the Dominicans, I understand, in Austin, Texas. Somewhere in the 1940's, probably 1946 or 1947.
STCK: She had been the Principal and Sister Servant at Crafton, Saint Philip's. At the end of that term, she was released to go to Texas. I remember when she came to Seton Hill and said good-bye to the community.
SPGW: Am I correct in thinking that you and Sister Generosa and Sister Marie Monica were probably involved in some of the very early departmental work back in 1928?
STCK: That's right. It was really just being introduced into the diocesan program and we experimented with it in our own situations. And from that learned that there were things that would have to be rectified or would have to be made balance so that you didn't have too much emphasis on one thing and not enough on the other.
9
This interview is being conducted as part of the oral history program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Teresa Clare Kernan. The interview is being conducted by Sister Paul Gabriel Wilhere at Assumption Hall. The date is August 24, 1982.
SPGW: This is August 1982. We are at Assumption Hall getting an Oral History on Sister Teresa Clare Kernan. We are involved in getting Oral Histories on a number in the community. So I am pleased to be allowed to interview you because I hope to find out some things that I don' t know. Sister Teresa Clare, where do you come in your own family?
STCK: Well, I am the eighth child often. But, the last two died as infants. So I always say I was a baby three times. I think that accounts for some of the things that you'll learn.
SPGW: What about the older members of your family?
STCK: Well, we had John and Ray who are the oldest of the family. No, Nellie was the oldest. I'm sorry. Nellie was the oldest and then John and Ray and Father Jim, and then Julia and Frank and Mary and I. Of that whole group, Mary and I are the only two now living.
SPGW: Mary worked in a...
STCK: She worked in a city department from high school. She went to school at Peabody High and had a position there before she graduated and continued to work there for a number of years until it became necessary for somebody to be at home with mother and unpaid who could drive the car and so Mary stayed home for a number of years. She didn't go back to work until she went to Sacred Heart as one of the office secretaries.
SPGW: You and Mary have always been very close. I remember reunions at Oakmont where it seemed several generations gathered. Everybody belonging to everybody else.
STCK: That's right. It's a strong family feeling from the youngest. I can remember one of our youngest ones one time at one of the family reunions just stood and looked at everybody and then she went to her Dad and she said, "Do they all belong to me?" That's very characteristic. I think the whole family feels that way. We all belong to each other.
That' s good.
SPGW: You mentioned Father Jim. His last assignment was as Pastor of Saint Luke's which was with our sisters.
STCK: That's right. He was there as Pastor until he had to retire at the age of 75 according to the Diocesan regulations although he felt he could have continued for another few years. But he did remain there at Saint Luke's and died in 1981.
SPGW: He wrote a family history, I understand, it's available ifwe want to know more about
the Kemans.
STCK: That's right. And his history is well done.
SPGW: I would expect it to be. How did your parents feel about your entering?
STCK: Well, my father was dead, but I don't think that would have brought him any pain and my mother was very happy about it. But, I was only 16 when I finished high school and she thought that was too young, so she told me if I waited until I was 18, she would be happier than if I were to go at 16. I was glad I did because in that interim time after high school I had a semester that I stayed home and helped at home because mother wasn't very well and somebody had to be in the house. Then I got into the teacher training school, which I probably would not have done, if I had gone right out of high school, you know. It was in that time that I learned about it and made application and was accepted and I graduated from there at the end of January 1923. I entered on the 2nd of February 1923. So, it was like a continuous education.
SPGW: You entered from Saint Kieran Parish. Did you always live there?
STCK: Yes. My father built the house that we lived in before he was married. He brought my mother there as a bride. My mother didn't live any place except that until after most of the family was dead and Jack built two small houses, one for him and one for mother. Those two are around Saint Mary's, so we really never left Saint Mary's, which is in the East End of Pittsburgh. The lands join to the same side of the road.
SPGW: You said you entered from Saint Kieran's. Were you taught by the Sisters of Charity there?
STCK: Oh, yes. The Sisters of Charity had come there early in the history of the community in the Pittsburgh Diocese. I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was a well established school when I went to it. Sister Zita was the Principal there when I was there. She was there for a number of years. She was related to Father Doyle who was our Pastor. There always seemed to be somebody of that relationship at Saint Kieran's Convent, and that was good. I think it was a good thing.
SPGW: What year did you say you entered? STCK: I entered on February 2, 1923.
SPGW: What was happening,just as a matter of interest and history, can you remember any of the things that were happening either in the city or in your neighborhood and in the country at that point?
STCK: The First World War had just ended. All the time I was in high school we were, you
know, making things for the soldiers. Father Coakley, who had been our Principal, went as a Chaplain and he sent us some forms of what was taking place and what the needs were. So all through high school time we were either making bandages or we were knitting or we were doing something to help in the First World War. So the City was just really recovering from the First World War by 1923. So in the industries, there weren't many men, particularly the steel mills, and then that had quieted down a little bit at that time. There was no depression or anything. The aftermath of the World War I was not the best thing.
SPGW: What kind of work did your father do?
STCK: My father was a brick layer , but he was a, I think what you would call an industrial brick layer. In other words, he had learned the trade in England, where he was from. He was born there and educated there and learned his trade there. Then when they came to this country and the steel mills were beginning to be, he was hired by Andrew Carnegie, in one of the first steel mills. They were the men who lined the furnaces with fire brick to make the steel, the grade of steel that they wanted. So it was a very professional job.
He trained all the other men who worked under him to do that particular kind of thing. (As I remember, when he' d be reading a newspaper or a magazine or a book or anything , around the margins you could always tell about where he stopped because there would be a little snitch in pencil around that). A new kind of ceiling where the brick would merge in a certain way and there would be different kinds of arches and what have you at the part of seaming because the draft of the air to purify the steel, the iron as it was being converted into steel, had to be exact and that was the bricklayer's job. So it was always considered an important job in the steel mill. He and Andy Carnegie were on first term speaking thoughts. That's how close it was to the beginning of the steel mills and making an empire of steel in Pittsburgh.
SPGW: Did any of your brothers follow that line of work?
STCK: Yes. My oldest brother, Jack (John), and Ray both followed in his footsteps. They were trained under him and became expert bricklayers themselves. During the First World War, Jack went to the Army and was in service overseas in England. Ray took my father' s place in the mill. He was the Superintendent. When Jack came back from the service, Ray was already installed because Ray had married and Jack thought that that should be his place. So, Jack then went into independent work as a bricklayer and he went into construction work himself. He never went back to the steel mill after that.
He developed the John J. Kernan Construction Company.
SPGW: About the community, who was the Mother Superior when you petitioned to enter? In those days did you have to come up and asked to join the community?
STCK: Yes. I came up. I remember I came in the summer. Because Sister Barbara, I was going to be Sister Barbara's postulant. Sister Barbara was from Saint Kieran. Her
brothers had also worked in the steel mills with my father. Sister Barbara and Sister Charlotte Judge were both from Saint Kieran. In fact, I saw both of them, but I was Sister Barbara's postulant because she was the older of the two. That was in the summer of '22 when I petitioned, but I didn't enter until '23 because it was the decision of the superiors at that time that I should finish the teacher training program and graduate.
SPGW: Who was the Mother Superior? Do you remember?
STCK: She died in office. Mother... (Mother Mary Raymond Creed - transcriber's note) SPGW: It was not Josephine?
STCK: No, later than that. I should remember because I looked it up.
SPGW: What do you remember about your postulancy? Now in 1982, postulancies are very different. I think it would be interesting to know what your's was like.
STCK: I enjoyed my postulancy very much.
SPGW: Did you change clothes the day you entered?
STCK: Yes. In fact, we had a funny experience coming. Father Jim, and Mother, and Mary and I came up together. The only means of transportation was by train. So, we had taken the train that we thought to Greensburg. Here it turned out to be the one that went out on the cut off toward Oakmont and that section. So we had to come back to East Liberty. So by the time we arrived at Seton Hill, it was well after seven o'clock at night.
SPGW: Oh, my.
STCK: They thought I got along the way and decided not to come or something like that.
They often teased me about it as the years went on in the novitiate.
SPGW: Did you have your supper?
STCK: We called and told them that we had made this mistake and we were delayed. They said, "Now, don't stop and get supper any place. Come on up and we will have something for you." They had the table set up in the students' dining room and we all went in there to eat and the sisters came with us to accompany us. Then they took me upstairs and had me dress as a postulant before Mother and Father and Mary left so they'd see me. So by that time, it was almost time for night prayers and so that's as much as I had on the first night.
SPGW: What was the postulant dress?
STCK: A plain. It was made at home. Aunt Peg made it. It was a plain black dress. It buttoned up on the shoulder and down the one side. It had a little white sash across the one shoulder. Now the cape, which had also been made at home; it came down to our ankles. We were very comfortable and all looked very nice. They always wore a little white ribbon collar with it. The black dress had a high neck line and then that was just like a little edging on that. And the same way with the cuffs. The cuffs were just an edging on the long sleeves. I remember somebody in the family had done hemstitching on my cuffs. It looked very trim and neat. And the postulancy, you know, only lasted for a few months in those days. I entered in February and I received the habit in May, about three months. It would have been the extension, the ordinary extension. I could because I didn't think it was necessary, but that's the length of time it was for me.
During that time, some time in February, ifl remember, it must have been around the
12th or the 131 something about Lincoln's birthday, around that time, a sister became ill
who was teaching at Saint Mary's, so they asked ifl could go down and take her place in the boys school. So, I had everything from the first to the fourth grade in the boys school, which I liked very much.
SPGW: You always liked boys.
STCK: That's right. You know those little tots. We had a lot, I think something like 22 of them in the four grades. I remember them very well. I remember how excited they were when I was going to get the habit. You wouldn't think that would make any difference to them. But they were very excited. So I had one day that I was on retreat and then the next day I had the white cap on. So the next day when I went back to school with my white cap, they met me at the door and accompanied me into the classroom.
SPGW: What did they call you before you got the habit?
STCK: Sister. Sister Teresa. No, Sister Kernan. They used to call me Sister Kernan. Then, of course, I got Sister Teresa Clare for my name, and they liked that. I'm sure they changed it to suit me.
SPGW: Did you ask for your name?
STCK: No, but I was the first one to receive the habit following the beatification of the Little Flower. So, I was pretty sure... We were making a novena to her. I just felt that for sure they were going to put Teresa in some form. So I thought that Teresa Clare was a good combination.
SPGW: That's right. Was it a one year white cap novitiate?
STCK: Yes:
SPGW: What did you do that year? What did that entail? STCK: As a white cap, well we did...
SPGW: Did you continue teaching the boys?
STCK: I finished out the year with them. I got the habit in May and then I finished that term. Then in June, or in August, I didn't come back to Saint Mary's. We were supposed to learn to do all the kinds of household work that was necessary. That meant having charge of the kitchen and the dining room. At that moment, I was assigned to the priests' dining room. So, at least part of that year I was in the priests' dining room.
That was an art form itself. You know, at that time when we had a priests' dining room, but we had two priests and we had all the lay faculty.
SPGW: Men.
STCK: All the men from the lay faculty in the priests' dining room. That was on the ground floor of Saint Joseph Hall which had just been built and opened in the same year as I entered. So it was practically a brand new set up. But that's the way it was. There was a dining room on the west side of the building on the ground floor and a visitors' dining room across the hall from that. And as long as we worked there, I had the responsibility for the guests' dining room and also go out to the kitchen and get all the hot food and bring it in and do all that kind of thing. It was lots of fun. That was a part of the work. Then the other kinds of odd jobs that had to be done. You know.
The other novices who hadn't completed their high school were in class most of the time. So, a lot of odd jobs fell to me, I enjoyed that, one of them being the novitiate itself. Since I never liked to go to bed early, I used to do that charge after night prayers were over.
SPGW: How soon did you go out on mission?
STCK: I went out on mission the following year. I was a white cap for a year and then that summer I got the black cap, one year following the day I got the white cap. Then I was ready to go and the sisters went on mission in August. I went to Sheriden, Holy Innocents, my first assignment off the campus. So that would have been 1924. Is that right?
SPGW: That's right.
STCK: We were very welcome at Holy Innocents as well as necessary. I had the fourth grade to start with and that was a great treat. I really enjoyed that. Father Shields readers were being introduced about that time into the whole educational process and that was quite
an aberration from the old, completely phonetic method of teaching. It was a challenge to me as well as to the students to the way that they were taught. But, I think they learned.
SPGW: Yes. I know they did. You did go to Saturday school, though, as I remember. STCK: Yes.
SPGW: You and a very tall sister. STCK: Sister Mary Dolores?
SPGW: She died. No. Agnes...
STCK: Agnes Clare. Yes. That's right. We were both teachers at that time. I did go with sister later. Then I continued to go to Duquesne for Saturday class and I used to meet the sisters from Crafton. They were going to Duquesne. I got on the same train with them on Saturday mornings. In those days, there were Saturday morning trains. And then we' d get off at Fourth Avenue Station and walk up the hill to Duquesne. They would do the reverse about coming back. There was an afternoon train that we could get. It was convenient as far as Sheriden was concerned, and it was also convenient for Crafton. That's what I remember about going to Duquesne.
SPGW: This year we were talking about the 100th Anniversary of the Sisters coming to Seton Hill and then talking a great deal about Mother Seton, about Saint Vincent, and that sort of thing. What do you remember of the orientation of the spirit of the community in those days, was it pretty much oriented to Saint Vincent or were Mother Seton and Saint Vincent given equal seniority?
STCK: Saint Vincent's Day was the biggest day of the year outside of Christmas, as I recall, and that was always the 19th of July. You prayed a novena in preparation for it and everybody came and it was an exciting day for the whole community. A chance to see the total community. Of course, Mother Seton was always regarded with reverence, but she had not yet been made venerable, or beatified or canonized. That kind of, in other words, I've only known her by her pictures, very simple pictures of her hanging in the novitiate, and I think the community room had one too, picturing her in the black cap and the simple black dress which our postulants very much liked, a cap and a little bit of white trim. But I would say the orientation at that time was toward Saint Vincent because Mother Seton, her cause had not yet come into existence.
SPGW: Do you want to stop? STCK: No.
SPGW: We will continue. Since you taught novices 50 years ago, and continue to orient them to the community now, what were some of the contacts you've had with novices through the years?
STCK: Well, as a Supervisor of Schools, I had had them usually the previous year for orientation to classroom, like Introduction to Teaching or some place like that. Then when I went to their missions, I tried always to go if I knew they were brand new teachers in the school to be there as early as possible so that I could help them get oriented to the classroom. We would have lengthy discussions and lesson plans and all that kind of thing. They always said they were very helpful. Often times during my visit there, I would come in and have me take over and demonstrate a lesson so that they could pick up the method with their own children being there. Whatever way was possibleJ'd help them with their lesson plans and try to get... I'd try to have them to like to teach, like I liked to teach. I thought that was an important contribution to make, if I could help somebody else like to teach. I trained most of my novices.
SPGW: You used to say that most of the people you taught have learned to like to teach. You mentioned in the schools what was your educational role, was that in the diocese or in the community? When you were Supervisor of Schools.
STCK: Well, as a Supervisor of Schools, I was based in the diocese and in the community because at that time the diocese had a plan that there would be a supervisor in each school conducted by a particular community for every so many sisters. I don't remember at this point the exact number of sisters, but I would say off hand, maybe every 50 sisters. Maybe it was higher than that. It meant any community that had less than 50 sisters teaching in the diocese did not have a member of their own community who belonged to the board. If you did have, in our case we had, when I started out as a Supervisor. Sister Generosa and I were the active supervisors and then you'd have an older sister at Seton Hill who worked, to whom we reported regularly. Her name just went off of my head.
SPGW: Sister Norberta?
SICK: Norberta. OK. Sister Norberta had been the active supervisor. At that time she was no longer active, as least she didn't attend the meetings and she didn't do a lot of things, but she had a lot of contact with the sisters and always was very helpful with us. Any time we came back to Seton Hill, we would have a visit with her to bring her up to date with what was going on and ask her advice on whatever we were doing. So that kind of continuing contact with both the diocese and the community, I think was very good.
SPGW: When you say the diocese, the Pittsburgh Diocese then encompassed what is now... STCK: The Greensburg Diocese
SPGW: What about Altoona?
STCK: Altoona was also, we say, in the diocese. Remember all three of them were in the Diocese of Pittsburgh at one time. So we always continue to think of it that way. Then Altoona became a separate diocese.
SPGW: You supervised Altoona as well. When the schools opened out West, did they have their own supervisors?
STCK: No. They never had a person who resided there who·was the supervisor and so we made a trip at least once a year to the West and remained long enough that we would visit all of the schools and be whatever help we could be to these young... In those days, very young sisters, who had not yet been trained were rarely sent to the West. One advantage that they had was that they were all experienced teachers when they went.
SPGW: You mentioned working with Sister Generosa. Considering that it might be that her name may come up as we talk about the oral history. Sister Generosa...
STCK: Cuniff was her family name.
SPGW: And she transferred to the Dominicans, I understand, in Austin, Texas. Somewhere in the 1940's, probably 1946 or 1947.
STCK: She had been the Principal and Sister Servant at Crafton, Saint Philip's. At the end of that term, she was released to go to Texas. I remember when she came to Seton Hill and said good-bye to the community.
SPGW: Am I correct in thinking that you and Sister Generosa and Sister Marie Monica were probably involved in some of the very early departmental work back in 1928?
STCK: That's right. It was really just being introduced into the diocesan program and we experimented with it in our own situations. And from that learned that there were things that would have to be rectified or would have to be made balance so that you didn't have too much emphasis on one thing and not enough on the other.
9
Original Format
Audio cassette tape
Duration
31:02
Bit Rate/Frequency
96kHz
Collection
Other Media
Citation
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, “Oral History: Sister Teresa Clare Kernan,” Collections of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, accessed May 2, 2024, https://scsharchives.com/items/show/682.
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