Published in the March 16- 29, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Loren Hessling Burks
Sister Mary Kieran O’Connor receives a proclamation that declared Dec. 18, her 94th birthday, as “Sister Kieran O’Connor Day” in the state of California by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Photo courtesy Loren
Hessling Burks
Loren Hessling Burks
In 1963, a nun from the Sisters of Presentation in San Francisco received orders to open a new Catholic school in the then-rural town of Morgan Hill. Having lived and taught in San Francisco her entire life, Sister Mary Kieran O’Connor had no idea where Morgan Hill was. She gathered her belongings and made the journey south to arrive at the newly constructed St. Catherine’s School.
As a principal and teacher, O’Connor saw that opening the school would be a much bigger task than she originally imagined. There were no desks or supplies in the classrooms. The school was just a shell of a building on Peak Avenue. Before the school year started, she had to make sure pencils, paper, books, desks, chalk and chalk boards, two classroom clocks, and all other necessities were ready for the first and second grade students when they arrived at the new campus that first day of school.
The first principal of St. Catherine’s School was born Frances Bridget O’Connor in San Francisco in 1921. Her parents came to California from Ireland at the turn of the century. She was one of nine brothers and sisters. She and three of her sisters became nuns. “I was 11 when the Golden Gate Bridge started construction,” she told me. What a sight that must have been for the young girl watching the progress of what would become an iconic American landmark.
During her high school years she attended the Academy of the Presentation High School. She recalled that during that time, “I knew that being a nun and serving God was my life’s mission.” From there she received her teaching degree from San Francisco College of Women. She entered the Sisters of Presentation in 1939 and took her final vows in 1944. She started her teaching career in 1940 at Saint Agnes School in San Francisco. Teaching became her passion and a gift from God, she said.
In 1964, I met Sister Mary Kieran when I was a first grader at St Catherine’s School. At that time the nuns wore the full Catholic habit, the religious garments that are a symbol of poverty and uniformity. She always seemed to be amused by us kids in her classroom. I’m pretty sure she had some good chuckles with some of the first-grade actions we did and innocent comments we made. For most of my elementary years I wanted to be just like her and become a nun. It wasn’t until a 22-year-old lay teacher came to teach 6th grade wearing beautiful clothes and driving a VW Bug that I changed my mind. Her name was Renee Krietzer. To this day, both O’Connor and Krietzer stay in touch.
Seventy-five years later, O’Connor still keeps in touch with many of her students. One in particular, Uri Walsh, a first-grade student at Saint Agnes School in 1941, last year told his friend and former classmate, Gov. Jerry Brown, about his first-grade teacher who still taught after 75 years and is a vice principal at St. Christopher’s Church in Willow Glen. Gov. Brown was so impressed that he issued a proclamation that Dec. 18, her 94th birthday, is “Sister Kieran O’Connor Day” in the state of California.
More than 800 current and former students, teachers, friends and various dignitaries celebrated her 75 years of teaching on that day at St. Christopher’s. Former Morgan Hill students and friends of attended. Her very good friend, Mary Ann Elliot, and family, as well as former students including the Guglielmo, Saso, Britton and Hessling families were there.
Generation after generation, O’Connor has touched many lives. It was such a great honor for me to be there that day.
One day for lunch at her home, I tried to keep up with her. She told me she was going to drive up to San Francisco for the weekend to see her sisters. Then she jumped up from the table to answer the phone, cleared the table and then she took off in her car to get back to school before the lunch time bell rang because she knows the children need her. I thought, “How does she do this? Will she ever stop? I don’t think so. Retirement is not a part of God’s plan for her — and it will never be.”
Loren Hessling Burks is a fourth-generation Morgan Hill resident who is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. She is a member of the Library and Arts Commission. She wrote this column for Morgan Hill.
