Anniversary offers alums a chance to reminisce

Judy Mark, left, and her mother, Marge Elsea, sit in the new museum at St. Peter Catholic Church, looking at photos of students at St. Peter school in the 1930s. Both Mark and Elsea went to the Catholic school, and they recently shared some memories of their times there.
(Sydney Stonner/Democrat-News)

[Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The school has certainly changed since Marge Elsea graduated from what was then known as Mercy Academy in 1939.

In those days, the school was a coeducational one with grade school and high school classes, as well as an additional level of business school, and all the teachers were nuns.

It was the first of its kind in the Kansas City diocese.

Some students were boarders who lived in dormitories under the nuns' supervision.

As they do now, students wore uniforms to school, but the requirements might have been a little stricter.

Elsea said her first uniform was a blue dress with stiff white collars and cuffs attached. She also remembers wearing a blue sailor uniform with braided trim on the collar, the sleeves and around the waist. Girls always had to wear pantyhose under their dresses, she said, which couldn't be too short.

"The nuns measured to be sure it was the right length from the floor," she said.

Elsea began her academic studies at public school because her family lived out in the country, near Napton. Eventually, however, her Catholic mother decided to send her children to the religious school.

"She thought it was important that we go there," Elsea said.

So, Elsea's mother came to Marshall and rented a place to live. Still, Elsea and her brother had to walk about two miles to school each day.

Elsea was in seventh grade at the time, and she found Mercy Academy a bit of an adjustment from public school.

"It was very hard for me, though, because I had not been around the nuns," she said. "I decided when my kids got old enough to go to school they would start there."

But Elsea enjoyed school overall. She participated in the glee club and school operetta productions but concentrated on academics.

"I took all the courses I could," she said. "I thought I was there to learn."

After graduation -- there were 32 students in the class of 1939 -- Eslea remained another year to take classes at the business school because it would help her get a job.

"If people knew you graduated from there, that was a recommendation," she said.

She completed her courses in 1940 when, she said, "it was depression time."

Elsea found work through the National Youth Administration, one of the New Deal projects.

"It was something for young people to do to make money," she explained.

She was assigned to work in a loan office, specializing in lending to farmers. It wasn't a full-time job, but Elsea did clerical work like typing and filing. She made $16.20 each month, she said.

Judy Mark is one of Elsea's six children. In 1947, she started first grade at St. Peter School. Her classes were in a recently completed one-story building, which is still part of the school today, though it has a second floor, added in 1963.

There was no kitchen or cafeteria in the new school, and Mark remembers walking through a "real creepy" basement to the old Mercy Academy building to go to lunch.

She participated in a rhythm band in elementary school and later took piano lessons. In the early grades, Mark said, classes were combined; first and second grade were together, for example.

Mark remembers when the school's gymnasium was built, 1955, and the changes it brought.

"They were so excited when they built that gym," she said. "They made us give speeches from that stage. I hated it."

Like her mother, Mark walked to school, but she could wear street clothes to classes, though no pants were allowed.

"We didn't wear uniforms except on special occasions," she said. Those outfits were more like pep club uniforms, she said.

In high school, Mark took business classes from that still-esteemed department. She learned shorthand, typing and other office skills to help her after graduation in 1960.

"I got a job like that," she said, snapping her fingers. She was employed at Fitzgibbon Hospital for 40 years.

Mark sent all her children to St. Peter School, and two of her grandchildren attended also.

"My oldest daughter was so excited because she was going to go to school 'with the sisters,'" Mark said.

But, Mark remembers when they went to school for open house, her daughter was upset because she was greeted by a lady in a mint green suit. The nuns were still there, of course, but they had stopped wearing their traditional habits.

In 1968, the Catholic high school closed. Four years later, the nuns were replaced by Presentation Brothers, who remained at the school until 1988.

Now, as St. Peter celebrates 125 years, Elsea and Mark are glad to reflect on the school's role in their lives.

"It was almost like a sense of family," Mark said. "There was more of a closeness."

And, even though the nuns were strict, "it was fun, too," Elsea said.

Contact Sydney Stonner at marshallbusiness@socket.net