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 Sr.
Ruth Ann Gardner, OP
Diamond Jubilarian
60 years (August 14, 1944)
Sr. Ruth Ann Gardner, a native of Steubenville, decided in her second
grade CCD class that she wanted to be a Dominican Sister. Now, after more
than 60 years since she became a sister, she thinks it was a fine choice.
At age six, Sr. Ruth Ann was one of four sisters who, with their mother,
moved into their grandmother’s house after their father died. She
attended St. Peter’s in downtown Steubenville, a place she would
return to as principal from 1970 to 1977. After graduating from Catholic
Central High School, she came to the convent in 1942 and was professed
two years later, beginning a life as a teacher in far-flung places.
Sr. Ruth Ann was asked to serve in her community’s missions in
the Southwest, and in 1948, left for Amarillo, Texas. It was the days
of a segregated south and the sisters opened an elementary school for
the local minority children to provide them a quality education. The Blessed
Martin de Porres school, named after the now saint who himself knew the
sting of racial prejudice, was closed after the Supreme Court made integration
the law of the land. The local Bishop could not assure the Mother General
that the school could be integrated, and she would not contribute to the
continuation of segregation.
Aside from a few intervening years in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Sr. Ruth
Ann labored in the schools of New Mexico for most of her teaching career.
From Dixon to Abiquiu and then on to Santa Fe, she both taught and served
as principal, without, to her regret, ever really mastering Spanish. “The
parents worked hard and most spoke English, as did the children, but many
of the grandparents did not,” Sr. Ruth Ann remembered. “They
were often the ones overseeing the children and when they came to school
the children would have to translate their concerns.” Sr. Ruth Ann
as principal of St. Thomas in Abiquiu from 1962 to 1968 and of St. Anne
in Santa Fe from 1977 to 1982 and again from 1988 to 1992.
In the summers, the sisters took classes at the Christian Brother’s
College of Santa Fe and taught catechism at the outlying missions. “When
I first started we had no car – in fact we weren’t allowed
to drive,” said Sr. Ruth Ann. “But I eventually learned to
drive on the Rio Grande River Road and then we were able to visit the
other mission where our sisters served, and we were much less isolated.”
Asked whether it was difficult to be moved around from school to school,
Sr. Ruth Ann remarked, “That’s what I signed on to do –
go where I was sent and where I was needed – and I didn’t
fuss.” She continued, “I have enjoyed my life, loved my teaching,
liked my community, and would do it all again.”
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