St. Joseph School establishing endowment to honor beloved educator
By Bill Brewer
Sister Jolita still has a powerful presence within the St. Joseph School community even as the Knoxville elementary school makes plans for the anniversary of her death.
The community is making sure her last request continues to be honored for many anniversaries to come.
Sister Jolita’s dying wish was to help St. Joseph School, according to principal Andy Zengel, and that’s just what she will still be doing when an endowment in her name is established early next year to coincide with the anniversary.
“This coming February 2026 will be the 25th anniversary of the death of Sister Jolita. For the past 24 years, the family of Sister Jolita, especially Therese and Pat Hurley and Mary Catherine Willard, who is now deceased, and their large extended family from all over the nation have come to St. Joseph School to prepare a fundraiser that would honor the memory of their sister, Sister Jolita, for the purpose of helping students in financial need at St. Joseph,” Mr. Zengel said.
Photos show Sister Mary Jolita earlier and later in her vocation.
Sister Mary Jolita Hughes, RSM, was born in 1935 and died in 2001. The Sister of Mercy taught at St. Joseph School from 1994-2000 as well as in earlier stints from 1969-72 and 1988-89. She served in elementary education with stops across the state for more than 40 years, also becoming principal at St. Mary School in Johnson City from 1986-87 and 1989-94 and principal at St. Dominic School in Kingsport from 1976-78. She taught at the old St. Mary School at Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville from 1964-67 and at Sacred Heart School in Knoxville from 1978-86.
Father Chris Michelson, president of St. Joseph School, said Sister Jolita’s wishes specifically were to make sure no student would be denied any opportunity that was available to other students, such as lunches, field trips, tutoring, speech therapy, etc.
“All of those who were students of hers or coworkers of hers would say that was the kind of person she was. She would stay after school to tutor a child or she would make sure a student had money for a field trip out of her own pocket. This is a way to honor the mission of Catholic education that she held so dear,” Mr. Zengel said.
Following Sister Jolita’s death, Mrs. Hurley and Mrs. Willard, who are her sisters, started the Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along at St. Joseph School as a way to honor her and her dying wish.
The Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along was held annually from 2002 through 2024 in the St. Joseph gymnasium. It always coincided with St. Patrick’s Day since Sister Jolita was so proud of her Irish heritage. The event never missed a year, including during the COVID pandemic. That year, in 2021, the event was a drive-through barbecue/takeout supper, where cars picked up their meals in the school parking lot and the auction that was part of the event was held online.
It has been part of a series of successful development activities that St. Joseph sponsors to raise money for the school. Other activities include a Mardi Gras celebration, a raffle and online auction, and a golf tournament.
The supper and sing-along grew every year and so did its impact. The Willard and Hurley families would prepare food for the Irish supper in the St. Joseph cafeteria and make enough to serve hundreds of adults and children. And volunteers—mostly Sister Jolita devotees—would chip in to help make the event work.
However, a decision was made to suspend the annual supper and sing-along this year when Mrs. Willard passed away Feb. 16 at the age of 90.
“Right about the time of the Sister Jolita event, Mary Catherine took a turn for the worse. In a way, it was a blessing for the family to focus on her,” Mr. Zengel recalled. “It had become a real family event that people looked forward to coming to, not just the family that organized it—the Hurleys, the Willards, and all their extended family—but people who have been Sister Jolita’s students and coworkers would come. It’s also been a kind of Holy Ghost Parish and Immaculate Conception Parish event together.”
And while the Irish supper was gone, it was not forgotten. St. Joseph’s principal shared that awareness grew over the years of the fundraiser’s impact in helping students. “We are extremely grateful to those families who have supported the event through the years, and now we are moving on to the next chapter of this mission to honor her memory and also keep that mission alive.”
From left, Therese Hurley, Father Chris Michelson, Kathy Sompayrac, and Mary Catherine Willard, who passed away on Feb. 16, are shown at a past Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along held at St. Joseph School. (Photo courtesy St. Joseph School)
“Sister Jolita’s supper event every year would provide revenue that we could then use to help students in that situation. Through her sisters, Therese and of course Mary Catherine, the matriarch of the Catholic community here in Knoxville who went home to Jesus just this past year, it became time now for a new way to preserve Sister’s memory and also continue that mission of the fund. We are at the place now where we can create an endowment that in perpetuity we can have that fund that honors her memory,” Mr. Zengel said.
The St. Joseph principal explained that the annual Mardi Gras celebration at St. Joseph is more of an auction event for adults and the Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along was a family event where kids could come as well.
Father Michelson said that the endowment will be administered through the Diocese of Knoxville, noting that it is being set up now with the hope that it will be in place by February.
“We are very blessed. We took the proceeds from the Sister Jolita events last year, proceeds from the raffle, money from Mardi Gras, the Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along to get it started. We have $55,000 that we’re going to put in to get it going. That is Phase I. In Phase II, we really want to start working with people on legacy gifts that people can leave. Legacy gifts are near and dear to people’s hearts,” Father Michelson said.
Helping students for years to come
St. Joseph enrollment for the 2025-26 academic year is 245, up from last year. The school has 25 full-time and part-time teachers, with a total staff of 40.
“The kids who come from families who are not as financially blessed as other families, so that they are never left out, that will be our mission. The goal over the next few years is to hopefully raise the endowment to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and hopefully someday to $1 million to be able to help the kids here. That will be through legacy gifts. That’s what our goal is,” Father Michelson said.
Mr. Zengel cited examples of the impact Sister Jolita festival funds have had on St. Joseph students. He said there are field trips that require fees to go on that not every child is able to pay.
“When we have a field trip, you send out how much it is for the bus fee and the lunches that are provided. Anytime there is money that is not collected, we know the Sister Jolita money is there to kick in for the remainder,” he said.
Father Michelson added, “There is no one who is not going to be able to go to Norris Dam or Wesley Woods because they don’t have the ability to pay.”
Mr. Zengel pointed to another need that often arises for students, which is speech therapy services, and that often families will not have insurance coverage for that.
“If the staff here deems that those services are needed for a student to progress, the Sister Jolita fund will cover the cost. And we often provide those services in-house, and we will pay for it through the fund so the children will get what they need,” he shared. “At the end of the year, we always have unpaid cafeteria balances. We work with families to make sure that doesn’t happen. But a lot of times it’s when a parent has lost a job or similar circumstances. At the end of the year, if a family can’t do it, the Sister Jolita fund will kick in to cover those costs.”
Children entertain those attending a Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along by belting out some youthful Irish melodies. (Photo courtesy St. Joseph School)
He explained that while there was no Sister Jolita Supper & Sing-Along in 2025, there was an existing raffle that had been diocesan-wide but is now a St. Joseph-only event. “So, we named that the Sister Jolita Raffle to take the fundraising burden off of the supper and sing-along.”
The St. Joseph Mardi Gras will continue and will have certain auction items earmarked for the Sister Jolita endowment.
Father Michelson and Mr. Zengel were amazed at how the Sister Jolita festivity made money year over year despite challenges in some years.
“Over the last 13 years of the Sister Jolita event, in 2012 it brought in $11,405. In 2024, the last year it was held, it brought in $38,015. How it grew over the years was phenomenal,” Father Michelson said.
He was equally amazed that the Sister Jolita fund was never depleted. There always was money in it and it always seemed to grow.
“I expected the year to end with a major deficit. But it seemed to always cover the need,” Father Michelson noted.
“The need was always met,” Mr. Zengel added, pointing out that during the COVID year, people continued to give because they cared.
“A year later, we had six inches of snow on the Saturday of the Sister Jolita event. So, we talked to parishes and said we are going to move it to Sunday, hopefully it will be clear. People still came, and it still had a great impact,” the principal said.
To illustrate the event’s impact, Father Michelson said the year before COVID, 2020, it brought in $23,400. The year of COVID, 2021, it brought in $26,400. “So, it brought in even more not having the full event, which also is unheard of. People still gave,” he said.
Mr. Zengel began teaching at St. Joseph in 2005 and was named principal of the elementary school in 2014.
“I never got to meet Sister Jolita myself. She passed away before I was even living in Knoxville. The first time I heard about her was because we shared a love of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That was my first spiritual connection with her. All the stories I’ve heard about her are that she was fun and she cared,” Mr. Zengel said, noting that he is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
Father Michelson and Mr. Zengel are grateful to Sister Jolita’s family for keeping her legacy alive, for seeing to it that her dying wish has come true.
“Sister Jolita lives today not only because of the way she lived her life but also because Therese Hurley and Mary Catherine Willard would not let her memory die,” Father Michelson said.
“We want to express our gratitude to the Hughes family, the Hurley family, and the Willard family,” added Mr. Zengel. “The mission of a Catholic school is to make Catholic education available to any Catholic family who desires it. It’s almost a mandate that you have to make it available for those who can’t afford it. We have a tuition-assistance fund, and the vouchers are a game-changer for a lot of families to make it affordable. But things like the Sister Jolita Endowment and other endowment streams that come in make it so we can say yes to those families.”
The school has other endowments: the St. Joseph School Endowment that was established many years ago and has $400,000 in it. Proceeds from that fund are used to help cover the costs of general operations. There also is the Jenny Belyeu Morris Fund that was established about a dozen years ago to fund graduation gifts for eighth-graders who are moving on to high school. The Croes family also established a fund for St. Joseph School.
The Sister Mary Jolita Hughes Endowment is a welcome addition for a school whose family population looks like the Catholic Church, spanning the entire spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds, according to Mr. Zengel.
“This is going to be a great thing. Everyone is excited about the possibility of giving for this endowment. My prediction is there will be amazing growth in this fund over the next five to 10 years. We are blessed that we are finally able to do this,” Father Michelson said.