Sr. Grace's Relocation Brings Closure to 77 Years of Ministry in Portsmouth, VA
Photos are of the recent farewell celebration at Sr. Grace’s home, of Sr. Grace and Sr. Margaret as postulants and graduates of Maryview School of Nursing, and of Sr. Grace at her new residence in Sound Beach being welcomed by Sisters and staff.
On Sunday, August 14, 2022, a heartfelt celebration of gratitude recognizing the ministries of Sr. Grace Malonzo, DW, and the presence of the Daughters of Wisdom in Portsmouth, Virginia, was held at her home where she was surrounded by friends and colleagues. The gathering and prayer service was hosted by her long-term southern Sister-companion, Sr. Margaret McCabe, DW (Virginia Beach). Both Sr. Grace and Sr. Margaret graduated from Maryview School of Nursing, Portsmouth, VA, in 1958. With Sr. Grace's relocation to New York, the Sisters, who have ministered nearby for over 40 years, together brought about a conclusion to a presence in a community from which many other healthcare and educational ministries in the South evolved. Along with Maryview Hospital and School of Nursing most notable are Montfort Academy in Fredericksburg, St. Mary's Infant Home in Norfolk, Tug River Catterson Health Center ( Pineville Clinic), Pineville, West VA; and the administration and staffing of schools such as Norfolk Catholic High School, St. Bernadette Catholic School in Springfield, and Our Lady of the Angels in Craddock, among others.
Sr. Grace has been a mainstay. Raised and in ministry in Portsmouth for much of her 67 professed years, Sister will no longer serve in the inner city of Portsmouth, where she has garnered friendships and relationships that span generations. Sister will keep in touch with her friends and colleagues and looks forward to once again living in community at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent in Sound Beach, NY.
Sr. Grace graduated from Maryview School of Nursing in 1958 and for 62 years delivered healthcare and Pastoral care mainly to the inner-city people of Portsmouth, Virginia. Along with Sr. Margaret McCabe, she's been active as a member of the Tidewater Sowers of Justice (from the Tidewater area of Virginia Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach) for over twenty years. The Sowers is an ecumenical organization committed to the struggle for compassion and justice that is proactive, prophetic, and persistent for the good of the environment, immigrants, those faced with poverty, and the marginalized.
Before she began her nursing education at Maryview Hospital, she was a volunteer there during her high school years. Sister made her first profession in 1955 and started as a student nurse that year; later, in 1958, she became head staff nurse. Years later, in the 70s, Sister would go on to serve on the board of Maryview Hospital. After seven years, she was sent to Africa, where she was a visiting nurse in Nchalo, Malawi. Upon returning to the United States, Sister became a Chaplain and served once again at Maryview hospital, then with Portsmouth Naval Hospital, visiting the community's shut-ins and impoverished people. Over the years within her neighborhood, Sister served as a lector and Eucharistic Minister at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Portsmouth, VA, and Maryview Hospital. She was a Eucharistic Minister to shut-ins and the imprisoned and volunteered in the Soup Kitchen at Oasis Social Outreach in Norfolk, VA.
Sr. Margaret McCabe shared, "The move to New York by Sr. Grace is personal as well as provincial. But is part of a much greater whole. When Sr. Grace leaves Portsmouth, VA, it will conclude 77 Years of Ministry in an early Daughters of Wisdom foundational establishment, Maryview Hospital, Maryview Hospital School of Nursing, and then beyond.
The move to Maryview Hospital, in 1945, at the request of the then Bishop of the Diocese of Richmond marked the expansion of the Province, out of the Northeast region to the South which was classified as mission territory. In addition, the Maryview School of Nursing was the seedbed for much of the basic nursing education of Daughters of Wisdom until 1970, which ministered Province-wide. It was after this 1945 move South that ministries in Norfolk, Craddock, Fredericksburg, and Springfield were established."
Sr. Margaret shared that the celebration and recognition of Sr. Grace as the last link was to bring about closure to 77 years of ministry in the Portsmouth area. And it "relied on the power of symbols. "Sr. Margaret stressed the "providential ending after "77" years, with 7 in scripture, denoting a sense of "fullness or completeness." During the ceremony, the scripture reading was the Parable of the Sower. As Sr. Margaret shared, "Daughters of Wisdom have always been doers- sow the seed, we must, but the outcome is not ours to determine."
The readings were concluded with a reflection, "Life is a Journey," and the blessing of Sr. Graces' home and property with water (everyone contributing some), Rosemary, and Bay branches. Sr. Margaret added, "the gathered shared in thanking water, the source, and sustainer of our existence, acknowledging we came to birth surrounded by water." And to invoke "future life and growth on all that would follow us —as we walked about blessing each and all."
"All in all it was a GRAND celebration —a very real tribute of love and thanks to Sr. Grace from so many who were blessed by their interactions with her over so many years," said Sr. Margaret.
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The following is a snapshot of the history of Maryview Hospital and the Daughters of Wisdom's presence, adapted from the booklet from the Maryview Hospital School of Nursing's reunion gathering in 2009.
A diverse wartime population boom and an augmented need for health care in the immediate post-World War II Portsmouth set the stage for the opening of Maryview Hospital in 1945.
Maryview Hospital has its roots in the former Parrish Memorial Hospital on Court Street in downtown Portsmouth.
Originally, Parrish Memorial Hospital owned the tract of land on which Maryview resides. The initial facility was built as a wartime barrack-style rehabilitation hospital for veterans and was sold to the Federal Government. With the war's end, the Government, not needing nor wishing to run the hospital, sold it to the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. Bishop Peter L. Ireton and Monsignor F. Harold Nott, diocesan officials, asked the Daughters of Wisdom to staff the hospital. The Sisters had extensive nursing experience, especially in caring for children with polio which became rampant during the post-war years. Thus Maryview started to care for patients in 1945 with eight Daughters of Wisdom, eight local nurses, and forty doctors on staff.
Maryview Hospital School of Nursing began almost simultaneously with the hospital's foundation. When Parrish Memorial Hospital could no longer maintain the hospital and its nursing school, six students transferred as seniors to the new hospital and became the first graduating class of Maryview Hospital School of Nursing in September 1945. Maryview's nursing students were local young women, many of whom participated in the Cadet Nurse Corps, a government-established endeavor to increase the number of nurses who would be needed in wartime.
The Director of Parrish Memorial School of Nursing, Ethel D. Waller, continued in this position until 1946 when Sr. Elizabeth assumed leadership as Director of the school. During the early post-World War II years, with the shortage of professional teaching staff and specialty physicians, the students affiliated at the University of Virginia. After 1949 this changed to the Medical College of Virginia for the study of pediatrics and psychiatry. By 1952, the number of pediatric patients and pediatricians on Maryview Hospital's medical staff was adequate to meet the pediatric educational and clinical requirements. After that, the students' only affiliation was with psychiatry at Seton Institute in Baltimore.
The National League for Nursing initially accredited the school in 1952 and later granted full accreditation to the nursing program.
In 1950, the graduates organized the Alumnae Association and provided a three-year Maryview tuition scholarship to a deserving student. The Maryview Glee Club began in 1951 under the guidance and direction of Mrs. Byron T. Eberly, with Mrs. McPhail as a pianist. In 1953 the students formed a basketball team.
A 14-room addition to the original two-story nurses' residence, Govert Hall, named after the pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Church in Portsmouth, was completed in 1955. Enrollment in the School of Nursing steadily increased, attracting students from widespread areas of Virginia and other states. Young women from Asia also joined the student body from 1955-1960. The students' uniform, a blue and white-stripped dress with starched bib & apron, remained the same until 1965 when the blue and white seersucker one replaced it. The one constant was the starched white Maryview cap that reminds every graduate of the rich values its six buttons symbolize: Loyalty, Tact, Discretion, Self-control, Patience, and Dependability.
In 1959, Sr. Elizabeth pursued graduate education at St. John's University in New York. Sr. Catherine (Sr. Marilyn Lieber) replaced her for two years as Acting Director of the School of Nursing. Later, in 1964, when Sr. Elizabeth was called to service in New York, Sr. Mary filled the position of Director.
Qualified nursing faculty joined the school and the level of excellence endured. In 1968, the school ranked first among the diploma nursing schools in Virginia. The students were always engaged in professional activities as members of the district, state, and national student nurses' organizations, with several assuming leadership positions.
During 1945-1971, faculty members assumed responsibility for creating, selecting, and guiding learning experiences. They shared the vision that education for the professional practice of nursing is based upon the philosophy that respects the dignity of the human person, preservation of human life, and the betterment of the individual's health.
To change is to be alive --- In the mid to late 1960s, nurse educators and nursing leaders realized that the evolution of nursing practice demanded higher professional education and urged nursing to transition from hospital diploma programs to the academic university setting. Maryview Hospital School of Nursing faculty recognized this trend and, in 1968, began concrete plans to gradually discontinue the school of nursing. The Maryview Hospital Board of Directors decided to close the diploma program with the graduation of the then-current freshman class in 1971.
Thus ended an era that began in 1945 with the transition of students from Parrish Memorial Hospital to Maryview Hospital School of Nursing to 1970 with the transition of nursing education to Tidewater Community College. Maryview Hospital School of Nursing served as a partner in meeting community health needs in the orderly planning and integration of nursing education into an institution of higher learning.
During its history, there were 418 graduates of Maryview Hospital School of Nursing. Among them were a combined 54 Sisters and former Sisters.
1946: Sister Alice Franck, DW (Sr. Marie Edith); Sr. Joan of the Cross, DW.
1948: Sr. Anne Gertrude, DW; Sr. Dorothy VanHove, DW (Sr. Louis Marie).
1949: Sr. Helen Frances, DW; Sr. Marina, DW; Sr. Mary Francis, DW; Margaret Kane Pillsy (known as Sr. Marian).
1950: Michelle Cyr Haschak (known as Sr. Michelle); Mary Bourgoin Maltese (known as Sr. Bernard); Kathleen Smyth (known as Sr. Mary Paul); Florence Zimmer (known as Sr. Florence).
1951: Patricia Foley (known as Sr. Marie Louise); Sr. Mary Fidelis, DW.
1953: Isabel L. LeBrun Gangler (known as Sr. Isabel); Marie McLaughlin (known as Sr. Mary John); Sr. Aurelie Michaud, DW; Jacqueline Ouellette (known as Sr. Anita Marie).
1954: Sr. Edna English, DW; Sr. Marie Louise Kelly.
1955: Sr. Rita Finnen, DW (known as Sr. Joseph of the Trinity); Sr. Marilyn Therese Lieber, DW (known as Sr. Catherine); Mary Anne Malone (known as Sr. Elisabeth of the Cross).
1956: Sr. Alice of Wisdom, DW; Catherine Donohue DeBelder (known as Sr. Mary Fidelis); Peggy Shank Fugelsang (known as Sr. Damien of the Immaculate).
1957: Anne C. Bures (known as Sr. William Immaculate); Maureen Calista Hendricks (known as Sr. Maureen); Sr. Jeanne Nicknair, DW (known as Sr. Jean Louis); Helen O'Leary (known as Sr. John).
1958: Sr. Joan Canfield, DW (known as Sr. Catherine of Montfort); Sr. Eileen Catterson, DW (known as Sr. Eileen); Patricia Connell (known as Sr. Evelyn of Mary); Sr. Grace Malonzo, DW (known as Sr. Grace of Our Lady); Sr. Mary Joy of Jesus, DW; Sr. Margaret McCabe, DW (known as Sr. Patrick Margaret).
1960: Sr. Agnes Marie Bracken, DW (known as Sr. Agnes Marie); Mary P. Collins (known as Sr. Mary Patrick); Sr. Gregory Mary of Jesus, DW.
1961: Leanore Brown (known as Sr. Mary Joy); Sr. Mary Jane Cashin, DW (known as Sr. Mary Dolores); Sr. Joan Klemballa, DW (known as Sr. Joan of the Rosary); Sr. Rosemary McKenna, DW (known as Sr. Mary James).
1962: Sr. Mary Jo O'Connor, DW (known as Sr. Maria Christi); Sr. Joanne Zielinski, DW (known as Sr. Edward Marie).
1963: Marjorie Kraise Hunter (known as Sr. Martin Mary); Sarah A. Jerro (known as Sr. Rose John); Mary Ellen Kay (known as Sr. Mary Ellen); Audrey Kracke Lambert (known as Sr. Audrey of Montfort); Barbara Behr Plansker (known as Sr. Ann Marie).
1964: Sr. Francis Damian (known as Sr. Francis Damian of the Passion).
1965: Margaret Dwyer (known as Sr. John Margaret); Juliana Schrock Natalio (known as Sr. Anna Joseph.
1968: Loretta Stauber Mignone (known as Sr. Loretta Mary).
Here’s some trivia we found in our Archives— Maryview went through a few name changes. When the hospital was built, it was known as “Glenshellah Hospital.” When the Daughters of Wisdom took over the administration, they considered both “Glenshellah” and “Glenmary” before deciding on “Maryview.”
The name “Maryview” was chosen in honor of the Virgin Mary and the Waterview area of Portsmouth located near the hospital.
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Caring for Children Since 1944
The world was at war when what was then St. Mary's Infant Home in Norfolk, VA, opened on December 8, 1944, in a renovated century-old building to care for abandoned and orphaned children.
The Daughters of Wisdom began caring for the children in 1946 and managed the Home for many years. In the 1950s, St. Mary's began caring for children with disabilities. During the next decade, St. Mary's built and moved into a 50-bed nursing facility specializing in residential care for children with more severe intellectual disabilities at a time when there weren't many such places. The last Daughter of Wisdom at St. Mary's, retired in 2011 after 51 years of service but still visited regularly to volunteer and see the children until she passed away in 2014.
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Montfort Academy had its beginning in 1948, when Mother Therese de St. Antoine, Provincial Superior of the Congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom, responded to an invitation from Fr. James Widmer, Pastor of St. Mary's Parish, to establish an elementary school in the city of Fredericksburg. The Daughters of Wisdom purchased land on Marye's Heights, a historical site where 80 years before, there were two fierce battles of the Civil War.
Six Sisters arrived on May 30, 1948, and the school opened in September of 1948 with one hundred and three students in attendance. It was the first Catholic School in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County.
Fredericksburg, rich in Colonial and Civil War history, was a small, sleepy, southern city when the Daughters of Wisdom were first requested to establish an elementary school. Maryview Hospital and St. Mary's Infant Home were still in the infancy stage when the third area of apostolate in the Diocese of Richmond was being prepared. Sisters who served at Montfort Academy included:
1948-1998
Sr. Alexander de Marie Campbell, Principal, 1948-1952
Sr. Marie Marguerite de la Sagesse McPeak
Sr. Bernard de L'Assumption Schaefer
Sr. Louise du Calvaire
Sr. Montfort de l'Eucharistie
Sr. Marie Laurence de la Croix Corvi
Sr. Pauline de l'Ange Gardien Brancaccio
Sr. Henrietta of the Immaculate Heart Phianer
Sr, Emilie de St. Louis Loyer
Sr. John of the Heart of Jesus McCarthy (Sr. Mary Eileen McCarthy)
Sr. Virginia Marie de Noel Dunne
Sr. Marie Dolores Martin
Sr: Catherine de la Nativite Van Dyke, Principal, 1952-1958
Sr. Joan Mary of Jesus McNeil·
Sr. Felix du Calvaire Lafrombroise
Sr. Charles Garnier Paquette
Sr. Louis Mary of Wisdom O'Dea
Sr. Jean Lucia du Coeur de Jesus Philibert
Sr. Berthe de la Croix Deschaine
Sr. Patrick Mary of Jesus Dempsey
Sr. Mary of Jesus Reilly
Sr. Theodore de Jesus Werner
Sr. Aimee Marie of the Immaculate Girnis
Sr. Ange Marie du Rosaire Bouchard (Sr. Violette Bouchard), Principal, 1958-1963 ; 1979-1983
Sr. Albertine du Carmel Madore
Sr. Thomas Mary of the Immaculate Smith
Sr. Rose of the Precious Blood Shiebler
Sr. Mary Montfort of the Incarnate Wisdom Johnson
Sr. Paul of the Blessed Sacrament Shea
Sr. Dorothy of the Immaculate Heart Murray
Sr. Emma of the Purification Cyr, Principal, 1963-1966
Sr. Lucille de Marie Campbell
Sr. Ste. Claudia Michaud
Sr. Veronica of the Precious Blood Sachse
Sr. Joan Marcia of Christ Smith
Sr. Catherine de la Croix Nadeau, Principal, 1966-1979
Sr. Elizabeth of Wisdom McCormack
Sr. Barbara Mary of the Trinity Genua
Sr. Louis Marie of Christ Scherer
Sr. Candide de l'Enfant Jesus Corriveau
Sr. Paula Anne of the lmrnaculate Desel
Sr. Mary Josita Roggemann
Sr. Jean Ayotte
Sr. Berthe du Bon Pasteur Doucette
Sr. Rhea Quenneville
Sr. Rosemary Connelly
Sr. Joan Mary Rohan, Principal, 1983- 1998
Sr. Kathleen Tuohey
Sr. Mona Guerrette
Sr. Alexis MacEachen
Sr. Sara Kay Proctor
Sr. Doria Chamberland