A St. Mary’s Girl – Forever

To be remembered as a girl, not as a mother, wife, grandmother, aunt or an associate, but as a friend and a classmate, is a treasure. When my own grandmother was in her last years of life, she remarked one day that there was no one left who called her by her first name.

The legacy of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs lies in the formation of the children who attended their schools. It is a legacy that stretches over 173 years and is intertwined with Ohio’s history. But for many it is, essentially, the gift of friendships.

The legacy of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs lies in the formation of the children who attended their schools.

St. Mary’s Academy was established in 1830 in Somerset, Ohio. Ellen Ewing, wife of William Tecumseh Sherman and daughter of Senator Ewing, was educated there, as was the sister of General Phil Sheridan. A devastating fire consumed the school in 1866, and the Sisters moved to Columbus, onto land donated to them by local businessman Theodore Leonard. St. Mary of the Springs Academy operated in Columbus from 1868 - 1966. Hundreds of young women were educated there by the Dominican Sisters.

The friendships that form among women in high school are some of the tenderest and most tenacious of a lifetime. Girlhood friendships are forever encapsulated in a time bubble: the feelings they engender can reach across the years to innocent days of times shared and memories forged.

Marquise McCleary Smith poses
with classmates from St. Mary
of the Springs Academy, Class of 1926,
Sr. Virginia Hayes and Sr. Augustine
Schaub. Marquise chose to
leave a legacy for the retirement needs
of the community of Sisters who had educated her.

Marquise McCleary Smith recently made a special trip back to St. Mary’s to meet the the only remaining classmates from her Academy graduating class of 1926, Sr. Virginia Hayes and Sr. Augustine Schaub, who now reside in the retirement community at Mohun Health Care Center. While memories waxed and waned in the warm summer breezes on the upstairs Mohun porch, it was clear that the reunion was a special moment in time. The last meeting of girlhood chums was full of smiles and reminiscing about schoolgirl pranks, about parents and siblings long dead but not forgotten, and about their teachers, the Dominican Sisters. The three could almost hear again the swoosh of long white habits and the rattle of black beads on the polished wood of the old Academy floors.

Marquise and her husband Dick, have been married for 68 years and live in a retirement community in Florida. Thinking ahead in their estate planning, they chose a three-tiered health care community, where they have been active members for the last 17 years. Dick has served on the board of the institution and is an enthusiastic advocate for it. As a recipient of planned giving materials from St. Mary of the Springs, Marquise chose to leave a legacy for the retirement needs of the community of sisters who had educated her. The option of a Charitable Gift Annuity with the sisters allowed the Smiths to benefit from a quarterly annuity, paid over the remainder of their lives, with a residual gift to the Dominican Sisters. Marquise has left a legacy that will care for the Sisters, long after these three classmates have gone.

The parting words and hugs among the three friends were full of warmth.“Pray for me,”whispered one. “It’s been lovely to visit,” was the reply. “ I’ll see you next in heaven.”