A nun from Leopold, Mo., has spent 50 years educating generations

When Mary Jane Jansen was 5 years old, a family friend asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Jansen, who was skipping at the time, looked up and said "I'm going to be a sister and continue to skip."

By seventh grade, her decision was final. During her sophomore year of high school, she joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame and eventually began a teaching career that would span generations.

"I truly believe working with young people keeps us alert and alive," she said.

In 1980, Sister Mary Jane celebrated her 25th anniversary as a nun in Rome, Italy. She celebrated her 40th anniversary in 1995 in the Holy Land.

On Sunday, she'll celebrate her 50th in Leopold, Mo., and that's just the way she wants it.

"I grew up in Leopold. Religion was always important to my family. I'm sure my religious inspiration came from them," she said.

Much has changed over the past five decades, both in education and the Catholic Church. When Sister Mary Jane first joined the community, she was not allowed to drive a car, leave her home after 7 p.m. or see her family often.

She was also required to wear the traditional nun's garb from head to toe, which, as she explains, made it impossible to operate a vehicle anyway.

Today, Sister Mary Jane lives in a house owned by the church parish in Oran, Mo., drives a car and typically wears a suit.

And, she confides quietly, loves football and poetry.

Sister Mary Jane has spent 20 of her 50 years working in the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. She was a principal at St. Mary Cathedral School in Cape Girardeau for six years and currently teaches at Guardian Angel School in Oran.

She has also served as assistant superintendent of diocesan schools and worked in Texas, Tennessee and Illinois.

When she began her career in education, Catholic schools were filled with "school sisters." Now, there are mostly lay teachers, rather than nuns, teaching in parochial schools.

"Life is always changing. The needs of the times change. The areas in which we work change and to gracefully accept those changes and the challenges they bring keeps us happy people," she said.

She'll celebrate her golden jubilee with friends and family at a Mass of Thanksgiving Sunday at St. John Church, and an open house afterward at the local Knights of Columbus Hall.

"I have nieces and nephews who are retiring. They ask me why I continue," Sister Mary Jane said. "But I'm really very healthy and I enjoy it. Young people are refreshing."

cmiller@semissourian.com

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