Preis obituaries/memorials, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Name, date of obit, date submitted, submitted for the USGenWeb Archives by: Preis, Marie Clotilde Elizabeth (Sister Mary Clotilde) d. 27 Dec 2000 Mar, 2001 Don Johnson *************************************************************************** Memorial, Marie Clotilde Elizabeth Preis (Sister Mary Clotilde), Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted with permission of Dorothy Dawes, O.P. -- dmdawes@accesscom.net 580 Broadway, New Orleans, LA 70118, 504-861-8155, FAX 504-861-8718 or 865-8079 photos at http://www.dominican-sisters.net/stmarys/memoria/preis.htm In Memory of [Sr. M. Clotilde Preis] Dominican Sisters Congregation of St. Mary New Orleans Marie Clotilde Elizabeth Preis July 2, 1914 - December 27, 2000 Clotilde was the third child, second daughter of Dr. Clotilde Jauquet and Dr. Edward B. Preis. Sarah, the second child, was struck and killed by a streetcar at fourteen months. Clotilde, born two years later, became the focus of her mother's attention. Dr. Jauquet was a pioneer; a specialist in ear, nose, and throat; she was the first native New Orleans woman to study medicine. Women were not admitted to medical school in New Orleans, so she got her Ph. D. in pharmacy and then went to Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania. When she was not allowed to practice in local hospitals, she helped found the New Orleans Dispensary for Women and Children. In 1932 her daughter Clotilde, a shy girl of eighteen, one year after completing the academic program at St. Mary's Dominican Academy with some difficulty, determined to join the sisters. Dr. Jauquet was reluctant to part with her "baby;" Clotilde went home briefly, then returned to the convent in time to re-join the largest group of postulants in the history of St. Mary's community. In April 1933, fellow novice Sister Mary Alice wrote to their novice mistress, Mother Mary Dominic, away on vacation, "Clotilde is still helping others." In contrast to her daughter, Dr. Jauquet was outgoing. Always cordial to the sisters, she is remembered for supplying homemade cherry bounce and anisette to whichever was her daughter's community at the time. Sister taught thirty-eight years, usually third grade. In New Orleans: Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Anthony of Padua, St. John the Baptist, St. Leo the Great, and St. Matthias (where Al Daniel, Sister Mary's brother remembers her fifty-five years later as "a lovely, lovely lady"). In south Louisiana rural schools: St. Peter (Reserve), St. Joseph, (Paulina) and Holy Ghost (Hammond). In 1970 she was assigned slow learners at Our Lady of Lourdes, and then served as an aide to the first grade teacher at St. Peter, and later at St. Rosalie, Harvey, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. She was often assigned the infirmarian's role, not only because of her parents' medical background, but also because of her patient, gentle, and generous nature. In Reserve, a young Sister Betty Doskey had complications from a sprained ankle, and was confined to bed for two weeks. "Clo" came over at "little recess," at lunch, and after school, lavishing her with care. Betty had forgotten, until she was visiting Sister, now doubled over with arthritis in the motherhouse infirmary, and Sister Mary Clotilde, smiling, asked her "Do you remember in Reserve when you sprained your ankle?" Fifty years had passed, but the vivid memory of her kindness came back to Betty. And Betty Ann Boudreaux recalled the days when the impossible was the norm, and Clotilde's ultimate kindness: "She did our Saturday charges while we were at class." In 1970 Sr. M. Veronica began a charismatic prayer group at the college. Clo with seven other sisters was a charter member, and continued until her health gave out. One of the group, Carla Reinhard, now a hospital chaplain, told of Sr. Clotilde instructing her in Catholicism. The student was not ready, and the teacher was infinitely patient until the readiness came. At the vigil Sr. Shirley said what we all might wish to have said of us: "I lived with her in community and I never heard her speak badly of anyone." Carmelite was inspired by Clotilde's witness to contemplative prayer. The nursing assistants, who know, said, "She prayed all the time." The Cure of Ars would have recognized her as a kindred spirit. In a 1933 scrapbook from her novitiate, "The Unturned Page," a spoof on aging, death and dying, probably by Sr. Mary Clara Lorio, depicted the future Golden Jubilee of their group. In the skit, five of the fourteen lived to celebrate their 50th anniversary. (In real life, ten made it to the Golden Jubilee in 1984, and six of those to the Diamond, ten years later). Sr. M. Clara pronounces solemnly of the novice who was noted for her deliberate pace, "Sr. Mary Clotilde, Lord, have mercy on her soul, was rather slow about dying, lingered a long time, but when the end came she died so quiet and easy. God rest her soul." In real life, Sister lost some of her hearing, and most of her vision, but was alert and aware to the end. Clara, who would die of cancer at forty-four, was as a novice, prophetic of Clotilde: "She died so quiet and easy. God rest her soul." ****************************************************************************