St. Mary School marks 75th year in true Dominican tradition
By Bee Goodman
St. Mary School’s 75th anniversary culminated in a community-wide celebration on Sept. 10 marked by a Mass led by Bishop Mark Beckman, with Mayor Warren Gooch and other leaders joining to commemorate the Oak Ridge school’s history.
The anniversary began with an all-school Mass celebrated by the bishop as students delivered special readings. St. Mary classes offered the music liturgy, and student siblings Micheal and Mikayla Sweeney shared a special moment in singing the responsorial psalm together.
Concelebrating the Mass were Father Ray Powell, pastor of St. Mary Parish, and Father Jhon Marío Garcia, associate pastor of St. Mary. Assisting at the Mass were Deacons Gary Sega and John DeClue.
Bishop Mark Beckman is joined by Father Ray Powell, Father Jhon Mario García, Deacons Gary Sega and John DeClue, and St. Mary School students during Mass at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the school. (Photo Bee Goodman)
Bishop Beckman, in his homily, shared remembrances, with special recognition of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, who, with the Religious Sisters of Mercy, brought Catholic education to East Tennessee.
The Dominican Sisters dedicate themselves to “Love of truth: Study” and an emphasis on intellectual pursuit.
Veritas, or truth, is proclaimed by the Sisters, and they believe that to know God’s truth and allow it to affect their lives, they must study. For these reasons, the Dominican Sisters have a charism for educating children. They strive to provide a strong academic setting as well as a spiritual education. They also serve to change the young students into independent thinkers who will grow and continue to seek the truth of God.
The bishop also shared in the students’ excitement about the anniversary, meeting with them and exchanging high-fives.
Immediately following Mass, the bishop spoke to the young altar servers, praising them for their service to the St. Mary community. One of the students shared that it was her first time serving, a memory that likely will live with her for years to come as she recalls when Bishop Beckman presided at the school’s diamond jubilee.
The bishop remembered the school’s historic origins with the Dominican Sisters.
“The Dominican Sisters have continued to serve as a blessing for St. Mary but also to the hearts of many in East Tennessee. The Sisters are dedicated to a life with the Lord and to the care for these students,” Bishop Beckman said before the celebratory ribbon-cutting.
St. Mary School and Parish have a special connection to Oak Ridge. In 1943, the city was closed to the public; only authorized personnel could enter the Secret City because of its role in the Manhattan Project during World War II. While Oak Ridge served as the new home the project’s relocated scientists, engineers, technicians, and their families, there was a demand for a Catholic parish.
That is when Bishop William L. Adrian of the Diocese of Nashville assigned Father Joseph Siener as the first pastor of St. Mary “proto church,” according to the St. Mary website. Father Siener offered the sacrifice of the Mass on an altar made from a plank placed upon two barrels. The school officially opened in 1950 when the St. Cecilia Congregation, founded in Nashville in 1860 under the 800-year-old Dominican tradition, sent sisters to reside in Oak Ridge and staff the school.
Peace and reconciliation
The 75-year-old parish also has ties to the city of Clinton, Oak Ridge’s neighboring town.
In 1950, five children and their parents were represented by the NAACP in the Joheather McSwain v. County Board of Education of Anderson County court case, suing to allow African American students to attend the nearby public school, Clinton High (now Clinton Middle School), rather than take a bus to the Black-only school approximately 20 miles away from home and outside of Anderson County.
Prior to Brown v. Board II (1955), the plaintiffs argued that the denial of integration was justified under the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, arguing that segregation was legal because select students also took a bus to get to school in Clinton. They described this as “separate but equal.”
Because of Brown’s (1954) overruling of Plessy, the group sought an appeal. The suit was taken to the Federal Courts in 1950 to appeal the decision by Anderson County. But until Brown II, the federal court could not enforce desegregation unless a school board was petitioned to do so or taken to federal court in the failure of the previous notion.
Upon Brown II in 1955, the Tennessee case was sent back to district court. In January of 1956, Clinton High School was ordered to integrate, “not later than the beginning of the fall term of the present year of 1956.”
On Oct. 5, 1958, the high school (now Clinton Middle School) was bombed in a violent response to the Clinton 12 public school racial integration. No one was injured but it forced a halt in their education, and as a result many students of the school were temporarily located to Oak Ridge High School to continue their education until the school could be reopened.
Upon the bombing, on Oct. 12, Bishop Adrian visited St. Mary School to dedicate the school’s outdoor peace statue, named Our Lady of Oak Ridge, in the Clinton school’s honor.
Eight years prior to the bombing, the Catholic school opened its doors with a policy of racial integration. The parish involved itself in the local movement of racial reconciliation throughout the civil rights movement.
Now, the parish extends its arms and love to another minority community by supporting immigrant families and enrolling their children in the school. The parish also extends into its local community with a thrift store and food pantry, open to anyone in need the area.
Being tied to the history of the Secret City, St. Mary Parish and School have offered a home for the faith of many, including some prominent faces.
Cecilia Klemski was one of the original parishioners, who was in attendance for the parish’s first Mass. Ms. Klemski moved to Oak Ridge to work as a secretary for the U.S. State Department within the Manhattan Project.
St. Mary School principal Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, OP, shows items from the school’s time capsule that was buried in 2010 as, from left, Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Bishop Beckman, diocesan schools interim superintendent George Valadie, and St. Mary School students watch. (Photo Bee Goodman)
Before her passing in 2016, she was noted in the book, The Girls of the Atomic City by Denise Kiernan, where she recalled taking encoded and unencoded messages from Gen. Leslie Groves (Manhattan Project director), or “GG,” despite having no knowledge of what the Manhattan Project was aside from helping with the war effort.
Mrs. Klemski also devoted several years to the St. Mary School cafeteria, where she enjoyed getting to provide meals to the children. Upon her death, many remembered her strong dedication to the school and parish.
Another prominent parishioner is current Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who has served as a Republican state senator since 1987 and was elected lieutenant governor in 2017.
Sen. McNally is the first Catholic to hold the second-highest position of authority in state government. He also is the state’s second Republican Senate speaker in modern history and the first from Anderson County in nearly 150 years.
Sen. McNally spearheaded Senate Joint Resolution 227 (SJR 227) from the 114th Tennessee General Assembly, which he sponsored to officially recognize and honor St. Mary’s 75th anniversary.
Along with those familiar faces, the school welcomed a new administration this year, with Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, OP, serving as principal and Zachary Sizemore as vice principal.
Sister Catherine Marie addressed the school and its guests at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Marian Courtyard.
“Though I have only been here a short time, I can see how special this celebration is for us. God has blessed us with this time from the very beginning of St. Mary’s history,” Sister Catherine Marie said.
Sister Catherine Marie and Mr. Sizemore shared in the anniversary joy with the students on Sept. 10.
Mementos from the past
Sister Catherine Marie also took great joy in participating in different selections from the school’s time capsule. Students’ contributions to the 15-year-old time capsule included crafts and cards, a turtle shell and a snakeskin, and many other treasures that were locked away in the capsule back in 2010 during the school’s 60th anniversary.
Time-capsule keepsakes are displayed. (Photo Bee Goodman)
After the capsule was opened, a young student approached Sister Catherine Marie. Holding his wooden rosary in hand, he asked her if he could give his rosary for the new time capsule the school is planning. The sweet request left a smile with Sister Catherine Marie, who politely told the students that they will be collecting items for the new time capsule at a later time.
When pictures of the capsule’s opening were shared on Facebook, some commenters posted that they remembered making things to include in the locked chest.
Oak Ridge Mayor Gooch attended the school’s celebration and spoke of the beautiful “connection of St. Mary and Oak Ridge, before it was Oak Ridge.”
Mayor Gooch also shared that the school and parish have provided many blessings to the city, and he was happy to share in their special celebration of 75 years and hopes for “the future of Oak Ridgers and Tennessee to be long and well.”
“St. Mary has been a blessing to the city of Oak Ridge and the community here. I know it will continue to be, and Oak Ridge is happy to have them,” the Oak Ridge mayor said.
St. Mary School found much to celebrate on the September day. Bishop Beckman celebrated Mass and remembered the school’s historic origins with the Dominican Sisters. Mayor Gooch shared his hopes for the students’ future at the school. And many young student faces screamed with excitement while unlocking the time capsule from years before.
The school has much to celebrate now and will find itself celebrating other special anniversaries in years to come.