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On the cover:
Renowned artist
John Deering’s donor wall at Mount St. Mary Academy. Created during the school’s 160th anniversary, the mural features a lifesize statue of Catherine McAuley and images depicting Mount’s history. John is the husband of Kathy Madey Deering ’75 and the father of Liz Deering Morris ’95.
MESSENGER
A publication of Mount St. Mary Academy
3224 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, AR 72205 501-664-8006 • mtstmary.edu
Mount St. Mary Academy is a sponsored ministry of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and is a member of Mercy Education.
MISSION
Mount St. Mary Academy, sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, develops young women with a moral and intellectual foundation rooted in Catholic tradition. Mercy-minded and college-prepared, our students meet the future with wisdom, compassion and integrity.
VISION
Equipped with knowledge, our graduates leave with confidence, courage, motivation and drive. Like Catherine McAuley, they are fierce pioneers, passionate about making a difference in their communities and the world.
2025-2026
MSM Academy Board of Directors
Donna Chachere ’83, Chair
Jena Cupples Compton ’91, Vice Chair
Deborah Baldwin
Ashley Bressinck Cunningham ’88
Joanie Greene Foster ’91
Fr. Stephen Gadberry
Jeff Hathaway
Summer Khairi ’12
Sr. Diane Koorie, RSM
Mary Logan
Edward Oglesby
Wallace Smith
Sara Jones (ex-officio)
The Messenger Staff
Jamie Groat, Editor
Dwain Hebda, Contributing Writer
Ashlee Nobel, Contributing Designer
Lori Sparkman and Nelson Chenault, Contributing Photographers
Printed by Arkansas Graphics
The Messenger is produced annually for the alumnae, families and friends of Mount St. Mary Academy. Please report any address changes or corrections to the Advancement Office at 501-476-3375, or email ccole@mtstmary.edu. All other comments should be directed to the publication’s editor at jgroat@mtstmary.edu.
Happy 175 th birthday,
Mount St. Mary Academy!
On February 5, 1851, the Sisters of Mercy arrived in Little Rock and established a foundation of faith, excellence and service that continues to shape young women today. As we celebrate this momentous anniversary, we acknowledge that the Mount St. Mary Academy story is not just a collection of dates, but a vibrant tapestry of individual lives and shared triumphs. In this year’s special issue of The Messenger , we look back with fondness at some of the people, traditions and moments that built our unique culture.
Sara Jones, Ed.S. Head of School
Mount St. Mary Academy Leadership & Advancement
Sara Jones, Ed.S. , Head of School / Robin Johnson, Ph.D. , Assistant Head of School / Msgr. Lawrence Frederick , Chaplain / Susej Burks Thompson ’95 , Director of Campus Ministry / Lane Vassar West ’89, Director of Athletics / Kate Schweder, Director of Finance / Mary Catherine Burney, Director of Advancement / Eden Coker, Director of Enrollment / Jamie Groat , Director of Communications & Marketing / Chelle McKenzie McCarroll ’02 , Director of Alumnae Relations / Catherine Hickey Cole ’95 , Database Administrator
History
ON HARDWOOD
Basketball holds a distinguished place in the history of the Mount
THROUGHOUT ITS LONG HISTORY, THE MOUNT HAS SERVED AS A BULWARK AGAINST ATTITUDES AND SOCIAL CONVENTIONS THAT LIMITED WOMEN, AND THEIR PLACE IN THE WORLD, AS LESS THAN COMPARED TO MALE COUNTERPARTS. PERHAPS NOWHERE IS THAT MORE EVIDENT THAN IN THE SCHOOL’S ATTITUDE TOWARD GIRLS’ ATHLETICS, SPECIFICALLY BASKETBALL.
Above: Mount St. Mary Academy’s 1908-09 basketball team, the first at the school’s new location in Pulaski Heights
A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME: JONI JOHNSTON CALVA ’76
“ Basketball taught me teamwork, how to depend on your teammates and have them depend on you. ”
- JONI JOHNSTON CALVA ’76
Above: Msgr. Thomas Keany (far left) with his first Mount St. Mary Academy basketball team in 1924-25, the year the school began participating in interscholastic competition
Right: Voted “Most Athletic” in the 1976 senior superlatives, Joni Johnston Calva (on right) also served as CHS Pep Squad captain
Above: Joni Johnston Calva (third from right) with the 1975-76 Belles basketball team
“ While winning’s the goal, the process of getting there requires a level of resilience that stays with you ... and [it] helped me accomplish the things that I wanted to accomplish in my life. ”
- DEIDRA WILLIAMS MACK ’88
THE DREAM TEAM:
DEIDRA WILLIAMS MACK ’88
Mascot Milestones: 100 YEARS OF THE BELLES
At Mount St. Mary Academy, “Belles” is more than a title – it’s a centurylong legacy perfectly blending the charm of the all-girls school with the symbolic strength of the bell that once called the community to prayer and study. What started as a moniker for Mount’s earliest sports team is now an established fixture of the school’s overall identity, so much so that many may be surprised to learn its evolution included a brief, spirited detour into the animal kingdom before the mascot was set in stone.
The Belles name officially tipped off in 1925 with the arrival of Msgr. Thomas Keany as basketball coach and the beginning of interscholastic competition. For six years, the name stuck, until 1931 when the team pivoted to a swifter identity: the Gazelles. As reported in the December 17 issue of the Mari-Echoes school newspaper that year, “The name of ‘Gazelles’ has been adopted by the
Above, from top: Deidra Williams Mack (left) and Kendall Mago Dunn ’88 at summer basketball camp
Deidra Williams Mack (right) playing at Southern Arkansas University
Beth Satterfield ’84 embodies the Belle spirit
THE
PHENOM: LORIE WHITE ’92
“ I think I was the tallest one on the team, and I didn’t even play inside. Our success centered around hard work and discipline. ”
- LORIE WHITE ’92
basketball team and seems to be particularly appropriate. The gazelle is a species of antelope noted for its speed, grace and gentle disposition. It inhabits mountainous regions and so is properly associated with Mount St. Mary’s.”
The Gazelle era was short-lived, lasting only until 1936, at which point the school returned to its roots. The basketball teams have been the Belles ever since, a title that eventually grew to encompass the entire student body and many more sports teams at Mount.
For decades, being a Belle was an identity rather than a character; the school didn’t have an official physical mascot. While yearbook archives show students donning DIY bell costumes in the ’80s, a formal face for the Belles didn’t arrive for another 40 years. In December 2023, Mount introduced Betty Belle, its first official costumed mascot. A clever, bell-shaped nod to the school’s heritage, Betty Belle has brought a new level of school spirit and pride to pep rallies, games and other special events.
From the original team of 1925 to the introduction of an official mascot nearly a century later, the Belles name has remained one of the school’s enduring constants. It is an identity that has outlasted trends and temporary name changes alike. After 100 years, the spirit behind the name continues to ring loud and clear.
Betty Belle, Mount’s first official costumed mascot
Above: Lorie White (left) and Andrea Williams Gonzalez ’92 served as driving forces behind the school’s turnaround season in 1991-92
School HOME HOME,
FORMER BOARDERS RECALL BYGONE ERA IN MOUNT HISTORY
IN ADDITION TO THE UNDYING TIES OF SISTERHOOD THAT BIND ALL MOUNT GRADUATES, MICHIE MCHARDY BISSELL ’62 AND JO HALTER PAULUS ’71 SHARE MEMBERSHIP IN A SPECIAL SORORITY. THE TWO ARE AMONG THE LEGIONS OF BOARDERS FOR WHOM MOUNT WAS NOT ONLY A PLACE TO LEARN BUT A PLACE TO LIVE.
Above, from top: Michie McHardy Bissell greets the early morning with a smile from her dorm room
A typical bedroom inside the boarding facilities in 1952
Jo Halter Paulus, far left, roots on the Belles as an MSM cheerleader
“ If you lived in the dorm, you had something in common. We all stood in the same line for the same meals, every day. ”
- JO HALTER PAULUS ’71
“ We shared many milestones of growing up together. It was more like a very closeknit family group. ”
- MICHIE MCHARDY BISSELL ’62
Above: In the dorm, Michie McHardy Bissell (top right) and friends play beautician for several grade school boarders
Shining LAMPS
SISTERS OF MERCY REPRESENT THE CORE OF MOUNT ST. MARY
MOUNT ST.MARY ACADEMY HAS THRIVED FOR 175 YEARS THANKS TO SEVERAL CORE TENETS THAT HAVE UNDERGIRDED THE INSTITUTION THROUGH GOOD TIMES AND BAD. PRIMARY AMONG THEM ARE THE SISTERS OF MERCY, WHOSE COURAGE AND FAITH NURTURED A FLEDGLING INSTITUTION AND INVESTED IT WITH GRACE ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN IT EVEN AFTER MOST OF THE SISTERS MOVED ON OR WENT HOME TO THEIR HEAVENLY REWARD.
The nuns represented a unique duality, one part mentor and one part mother.
Sr. Mary Frances Coutlee '21 with a student in Marian Hall in 1969
“ What pleases me most is that the service element hasn’t changed... It’s an overlay of giving back. ”
- SR. JOAN PFAUSER ’64
SR. JOAN PFAUSER ’64 YEARS OF MSM SERVICE: 41
From left: Sr. Deborah Troillett and Sr. Joan Pfauser
Sr. Joan Pfauser serving in the guidance office in 1990
MOUNT ST. MARY ACADEMY’S Founding Sisters
In 1851, a courageous group of women known as the Sisters of Mercy arrived in Little Rock with a profound mission: to provide education and compassionate service to a frontier community. Led by Mother Mary Teresa Farrell, these pioneers journeyed from Naas, Ireland, braving the unknown to establish what would eventually become Mount St. Mary Academy. Their unwavering dedication to the values of Catherine McAuley – mercy, justice, hospitality and excellence –laid the cornerstone for the oldest continuously operated e ducational institution in Arkansas. We hold a special place of reverence for our founding sisters and their enduring legacy, which continues to shape the lives of young women today.
Four Professed Sisters
Mother Mary Teresa Farrell
Sr. Mary Stanislaus Farrell
Sr. Mary Agnes Greene
Sr. Mary de Sales Keefe
Five Postulants
Alicia Carton, who became Mother Mary Alphonsus Carton
Mary Farrell, who became Mother Mary Baptist Farrell
Anne Healy, who became Sr. Mary Vincent Healy
Charlotte Nolan, who became Sr. Mary Ignatius Nolan
Jane Nolan, who became Sr. Mary Xavier Nolan
Above: Sisters of Mercy at the entrance of Mount St. Mary’s new school building in 1909
Below: Sr. Mary Declan Conway teaching a science class in 1966
SR. RICHARD MARY BURKE YEARS OF MSM SERVICE: 14
Sr. Richard Mary presided over one of the most difficult chapters in school history, the demolition of the original convent and academy buildings in 1982.
Sr. Richard Mary Burke during her first year as principal in 1981
Right: Sr. Richard Mary Burke
Angel of Mercy
Sr. Judith Keith ’51
Little Rock native Sr. Judith Keith ’51 lived her vocation through health care, as administrator of then-St. Edward Hospital, now Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith. In an era when women weren’t taken seriously, let alone a nun, she stood out for all the right reasons.
“Health care in my day was very much a man’s world. Women weren’t given equal opportunities,” she said. “Mount stood out through the years for standing up for women and teaching them how to equally and fairly assume their rightful position in leadership or whatever it was.”
A four-year letterwinner and captain of the Belles basketball team, Sr. Judith’s mental toughness and sharp elbows on the court proved useful in the business world.
“I tried very hard to engage and not act like I was different as a religious leader, but there wasn’t any free lunch,” she said. “Nothing was given to me, but if they respected you or thought you were pretty smart, then at least they didn’t try to fight you.”
Never one to back down from a challenge, Sr. Judith served 24 years as president and CEO of the health system and had such a reputation for astute leadership, she would achieve another milestone, serving as president of the Arkansas Hospital Association. Looking back, she can appreciate the skills her high school years invested in her.
“Mount made me realize I was a unique person, and I had gifts and talents and dignity,” she said. “It also provided competition, and competition is always good, as well as many options for leadership. In a business capacity, you have to make very hard decisions many times a day, and Mount prepared me for that because it grounded me and it freed me to where I could make the tough decisions and be at peace.
“I’m proudest of being able to provide health care in rural communities that otherwise wouldn’t have had it. I very much appreciate having had the opportunity to improve the quality of life of the people the health system served.”
SR. LISA GRIFFITH YEARS OF MSM SERVICE: 21
Sr. Lisa Griffith at a PTO Bingo fundraiser in 2010
Right: Sr. Lisa Griffith
“ Over these last 40 years, I’ve seen the importance of the laity in carrying it forward. What used to happen by ‘osmosis,’ we now have to be intentional about. ”
- SR. LISA GRIFFITH
GRADUATES WHO ANSWERED THE CALL FROMStudents TO
Beyond the visionary women who founded our school, the legacy of Mount St. Mary Academy is perhaps most beautifully reflected in the students who heard the call to follow in their footsteps. We honor those Mount St. Mary graduates who transitioned from students to Sisters of Mercy, choosing a life defined by the core values of Catherine McAuley. By entering this sacred vocation, these alumnae transformed their education into a lifelong mission of service, ensuring that the flame of Mercy lit in 1851 continues to burn brightly for future generations.
Alumna Name Class Year
Sr. Delphine DuVal 1918
Sr. Frances Coutlee 1921
Sr. Pauline Grummer 1923
Sr. Yvonne Finley 1930
Sr. Vivian McNalley 1930
Sr. Quintilla Halter 1931
Sr. del Rey Summers 1931
Sr. Ricarda McGuire 1932
Sr. Jovita Zarnoski 1932
Sr. Alice Janesko 1933
Sr. John Edna Hilpert 1942
Sr. Cyrillus Plafcan 1942
Sr. Lucille Sluyter 1942
Sr. Maurelia Petrus 1943
Sr. Werner Keith 1944
Sr. Dorothy Ann Plafcan* 1949
Sr. Judith Keith* 1951
Sr. Shirley Murphy* 1952
Sr. Dianne Ferguson 1954
Sr. Mary Ann Hardcastle 1954
Sr. Elisa Bauman* 1955
Sr. Jolitta Konecny 1955
Sr. Stephanie Miller* 1958
Sr. Noeline Banks* 1959
Sr. Norma Lipsmeyer 1961
Sr. Donald Mary Lynch* 1961
Sr. Kim Marie Lajoie* 1964
Sr. Joan Pfauser* 1964
Sr. Carolyn Zionce* 1964
Sr. Anita DeSalvo* 1965
Sr. Teresa Kelone* 1966
Sr. Virginia Mary Andrews* 1967
Sr. Marie Elizabeth Koehler 1967
Sr. Rose Marie Tresp* 1967
Sr. Kathleen Marie Tinnell* 1970
Sr. Deborah Troillett* 1973
Sr. Francis Fischer† 1870s
Sr. Antonio Grumert† 1880s
Sr. Xavier Szymanski† 1900s
Sr. Mildred Donnelly† 1900s * still living † attended, but no record of graduation
Above: Sr. Jolitta Konecny ’55 working in the school office in 1976
Above:
Coaches Sr. Lisa Griffith (far left) and Sr. Joan Pfauser (far right) with members of Mount St. Mary Academy’s inaugural bowling team in 2004-05
Justice Warrior
Sr. Rose Marie Tresp ’67
Getting to Mount wasn’t easy for Sr. Rose Marie Tresp, a Texan who cleaned classrooms in exchange for tuition and graduated MSM in 1967. The experience, combined with the constant example of a servant life, left a lasting impression on her.
“When I look back on it, I so appreciate that I had an opportunity that I might not have had if the sisters hadn’t made those kinds of arrangements for families like mine, who couldn’t afford to go there,” she said. “It wasn’t a huge amount of work, and it was an opportunity to spend a little time with the sisters.
“By my senior year, the thought came back to me that maybe I might like to join the convent. I told my dad and he said, ‘OK, but remember, you can always come home.’ So I felt free and supported by both my parents in whatever choice I made.”
After graduation, Sr. Rose Marie’s vocation sent her to the MSM classroom just long enough to know she didn’t want to be a teacher. Instead, her life led to social justice work where she’s spent a lifetime sticking up for immigrants and other disenfranchised populations from St. Louis to the U.S. southern border.
Known for her plainspokenness and fearless demeanor, she’s held her ground on issues she believes in, up to and including being arrested during protests. Looking back, Sr. Rose Marie said she wouldn’t change a thing, her Mount experience included.
“For me, it’s an issue of faithfulness,” she said. “I was in high school during the 1960s. The church was changing then, and everything in society seemed to be going in a way that I would say was more justice oriented. I’ve spent the last year really feeling like everything’s going in the opposite direction. So from that standpoint, do I really feel satisfied with what I’ve done? I’m not sure I do. Have I been faithful to the message of the gospel and have I made a difference? In some important ways, I think I have.”
SR. DEBORAH TROILLETT ’73
YEARS OF MSM SERVICE: 22
Sr. Deborah Troillett during her first year as principal in 1991
Right: Sr. Deborah Troillett
Sr. Deborah Troillett assisting the Liturgy Planning team in 2001
SISTERS WHO SERVED Legacy: A LIVING
Throughout our 175-year history, the many Sisters of Mercy who served as teachers, administrators and staff have helped define the character and mission of Mount St. Mary Academy. Today, we honor those sisters still living –both near and far. Their legacy lives on through our students, and we remain deeply grateful for the grace they continue to share with the Mount family through their prayers and lifelong devotion to the Mercy values.
Sr. Elisa Bauman ’55
Sr. Teresa Bednarz
Sr. Mary Corlita Bonnarens
Sr. Richard Mary Burke
Sr. Teresa Cusack
Sr. Sarah Ducey
Sr. Betty Elmer
Sr. Katherine Glossenger
Sr. Lisa Griffith
Sr. Jan Hayes
Sr. Jane Hotstream
Sr. Jacqueline Howard
Sr. Victoria Incrivaglia
Sr. Jeanne Marie Keller
Sr. Diane Koorie
Sr. Lee Ann McNally
Sr. Shirley Murphy ’52
Sr. Joan Pfauser ’64
Sr. Dorothy Ann Plafcan ’49
Sr. Jonella Rhoda
Sr. Carolyn Stoutz
Sr. Rose Marie Tresp ’67
Sr. Deborah Troillett ’73
Sr. Claudia Ward
Under Sr. Deborah’s watch, successful capital campaigns helped modernize the campus.
Above: Sr. Sarah Ducey (left) and Sr. Elisa Bauman ’55, longtime MSM principal, in 1976
Right:
Family THETREE
ASK 100 MOUNT GIRLS, PAST OR PRESENT, TO SUM UP MOUNT ST.MARY ACADEMY IN A SINGLE WORD AND IT IS A RELATIVELY SAFE BET THAT “SISTERHOOD” WOULD BE UTTERED MOST OFTEN. THIS SHOULDN’T SURPRISE ANYONE WHO HAS SPENT TIME AT MOUNT, AS THE FOUNDATIONAL BONDS THAT TIE ONE GENERATION OF CLASSES TO THE NEXT HAVE REMAINED UNBROKEN AND UNDIMMED FOR MORE THAN 17 DECADES.
Above (from left): Stacey Studdard ’97, Susie Stull Williams ’89, Addison Williams ’30, Debbie Loyd Stull ’67, Olivia Kersey ’28, Sydney Kersey ’26 and Summer Studdard Kersey ’95
The Loyd sisters (center four, from left), Dorothy Loyd Studdard ’73, Betty Loyd Carll ’71, Debbie Loyd Stull ’67 and Patricia Loyd Mahan ’65, pictured with their brother and mother circa 1966
Below:
“ Every time I go to Mount, walking with my granddaughter through the buildings, I have lots of fond memories of that place. It still feels very much like home. ”
- MISSY WORLEY SOLOMON ’69
Below: Representing three generations of Mount girls, Mimi Baldwin Worley (far left) smiles alongside her daughters and granddaughters (from left), Missy, Mimi, Rachel and Alice, in 2001
Above (from left): Mimi Solomon Parrish ’01, Margaret Alice Parrish ’29, Hattie Solomon ’30, Mary Alice Biedron, Missy Worley Solomon ’69, Miriam Parrish, Rachel Jones Biedron ’05, Ellie Biedron and Alice Worley Jones ’73
FOLLOWING THE BOYS:
A Family Footprint
Nearly as Old as Mount
Among the many family legacies at Mount St. Mary Academy, Barbara Darter Nelson claims a distinction that is likely hers alone. While the school is celebrated today as an all-girls institution, Barbara’s lineage traces back to a time before that tradition began – specifically to her great-great-grandfather, Michael Catherina, who was enrolled as a student in 1853. Her great-grandfather, Ben Catherina, attended, as well, before Mount's 1908 transition into an all-girls academy.
Barbara would walk in her ancestors’ footsteps, but only for a short while. After sixth grade, her family moved to Texas, where she ultimately graduated from Mount Carmel Academy in Forth Worth, married, raised four children, and built a successful career in banking. Today, at age 87, Barbara represents the last remaining Mount connection in a family tradition five generations strong. Feasibly the only living former student who can point to male ancestors in her Mount roots, she also serves as a unique bridge to the school’s earliest co-educational days.
“ It was so exciting for me to attend Mount like my mom and my aunt and my cousins. I was like, ‘I get to be a part of this tradition.’ Now I get to share all of it with Liv.”
- ERICA HENRY ERCK ’92
Above (from left): Erica Henry Erck ’92, Mary Lu Pabian ’68, and Liv Erck ’28
Below: Erica (holding her son, Jack) stands proudly with her sister, Katie Henry Chase ’04, and mother, Mary Lu, during Katie’s senior year
Above: Barbara Darter Nelson (right) and her younger sister, Diane, as grade school students at Mount St. Mary Academy in 1951
Erica Henry Erck can trace her Mount family tree to her greatgrandmother, Clara Louise Schoenwandt … a boarding student circa 1904.
NO OTHER Like Her
Stella Ann Chudy Cothran ’40 sits quietly in a chair, her eyes taking in the world as they have done for more than a century. At 102, she spends her days being cared for and loved by the staff at Briarwood Nursing Home in Little Rock. And while living past the century mark has taken its share from Stella, as one might expect, the memories of her beloved alma mater are never far away.
Stella, Mount St. Mary Academy’s oldest known living graduate, has lived a life surrounded by love, a love often emanating directly or indirectly from MSM.
A grade school graduate of St. Mary’s School in North Little Rock where she’s a life member of the parish, Stella didn’t recall any debate at the time over where she would live out the next phase of her education.
“It was just assumed that Mount St. Mary’s was where I would go for high school,” she said through her daughter, Cathy Cothran Fox ’76.“I was a day student commuting by bus to Little Rock and then by streetcar to MSM.
“One of my favorite teachers was Sr. Mary Frances who taught English and French. I was also a member of Sodality, Le Cercle Francais, and the Commercial Club during high school there.”
Looking through Stella’s senior yearbook at her mother’s side, Cathy feels the love that was shared between classmates when the world was new and full of possibilities.
“One of her classmates wrote, ‘Her laugh will never grow old, and she has a heart as pure as gold,’” Cathy said. “This is still true today.”
Stella – whose senior quote was “To be good is to be happy” – went to work at Vestal Nurseries after graduation, serving as secretary to the company president. In 1949, she expressed her love differently, this time to the handsome Herman Cothran, in a marriage that would produce three children. Her devout Catholic faith repeated for them what her parents provided for her, and all three of the Cothran kids were educated stem to stern in the parochial system.
Like her mom, Cathy recalled no debate whatsoever when it came her time to attend high school.
“I always loved seeing my mom’s Class of 1940 picture in the hallway at Mount,” she said. Today, in her mother’s twilight years, Cathy cherishes the ability to share the Mount legacy with her, a legacy that has since come to include Cathy’s daughter, CaitlinFoxEwing ’07, and Stella’s great-granddaughter, Lyla Tong ’24.
“I have always felt a special bond with mom as a Mount grad, and it’s special to share that bond with my daughter and great niece, as well,” she said. “The school has changed so much since mom attended, but so much is still the same. It’s a great history that we are so blessed to have had a small part in. I love that so many generations of young women are part of the sisterhood, and I know she feels the same way.”
Right: Stella Ann Chudy Cothran (far right) celebrates her 101st birthday with (from left) greatgranddaughter Blair Ewing, daughter Cathy Cothran Fox, and granddaughter Caitlin Fox Ewing
BreakingSeal THE
WALKING THROUGH THE HALLS OF MOUNT ST. MARY ACADEMY IS A STUDENT BODY THAT MIRRORS HIGH SCHOOLS ACROSS THE CITY, STATE AND NATION.
In the fall of 1962, two students arrived on campus, the first Black enrollees at Mount St. Mary Academy.
Brown v. Board of Education
“ It stings to think back on some of that. But if I had not gone through that, I would not be the person I am today. ”
- CAROL-ANN BLOW ’66
Above: Vice president Carol-Ann Blow (back middle) with other Glee Club officers during her senior year
Above: Carol-Ann Blow’s 1966 senior portrait
Belle Team A OF A
Front Row: (from left) Ana Bella Gutierrez ’26, Maria Ezzi ’26 and Chloe Freville ’26
Back Row: (from left) Maddie Hernandez ’27, Lillie York ’27, Amelia Green ’28 and Liv Erck ’28
THREE SENIORS CONTRIBUTE TO HISTORIC RUN FOR MSM GOLF PROGRAM
IN SEPTEMBER 2023, MOUNT ST. MARY WAS SUFFERING THROUGH A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP DROUGHT – IN ATHLETICS OF ANY KIND – THAT STRETCHED TO 2008.
Each year brought some element of surprise. In 2023 the Belles … were up by just one stroke as the final foursome, containing Chloe, approached the 17th tee box.
Right: (from left) 2023 State Champions
Left: The Golf Belles’ 2025, 2024 and 2023 championship rings, symbolizing an era of competitive dominance on the state’s biggest stage
Savvy Straessle ’24, Maria Ezzi ’26, Lillie York ’27, Kennedy Griffin ’24, Chloe Freville ’26, Ana Bella Gutierrez ’26 and Bella Craiglow ’25
RGame Changer
DAWN BARLOW DARTER BROKE NEW GROUND FOR WOMEN’S GOLF IN ARKANSAS
aised in a home that backed up to the sixth fairway of The Greens in Sherwood, Dawn Barlow Darter ’77 literally lived on the golf course. Urged to take up the game by her father as a child, she was so accomplished by the time she was a teenager that her choice to attend Mount St. Mary Academy appeared odd to outside observers given the school didn’t have a golf team at the time.
Dawn enrolled in the school due to her family’s deep Catholic faith. The Mount administration, recognizing her abundant talent, did the rest.
“Joy Rundell was the P.E. director at that time, and she put a team together my junior year,” Dawn said. “The other girls, they didn’t know how to play, they all shot scores over 100, and they weren’t used to carrying this heavy bag around in the heat, but they fought their hearts out and did what they had to for me to be able to play in the state tournament.”
Dawn made good on her teammates’ sacrifices and then some, winning the individual title the two years she competed at state after the team was formed. During her high school years, she also dominated junior amateur tournaments, medaling at age 16 in the statewomen’s amateur tournament. After graduating MSM, she became the first out-of-state Title IX athlete at the University of Oklahoma, where the women’s golf team won the Big Eight Championship – its first-ever conference team title – her freshman season. That same year Dawn shot the lowest score for the team in six of its 10 tournaments and tied for 33rd among college players at the 1978 AIAW national championship.
A year later she turned pro, but the life of a traveling golf professional didn’t agree with her, especially after she married her husband, Gary. Deciding to become a club pro, Dawn apprenticed at The Greens in 1981 before serving at Foxwood Country Club in Jacksonville as well as clubs in Blytheville and Henderson, Nevada. Hearing of efforts to renovate and revive The Greens, which had played such a huge role in her life, she came back to the club in 2010.
Dawn’s involvement with Arkansas’ golf community since then has been well-decorated. As a regional junior golf director for the Arkansas Chapter of the South Central Professional Golf Association, she won her chapter’s Player Development Award three times, her chapter’s Youth Player Development Award eight times, and the South Central PGA Youth Player Development Award in 2018. She was selected for the South Central PGA’s highest honor, the 2019 Golf Professional of the Year, on the heels of her 2018 induction into the Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame. In 2023, Dawn was also inducted into the South Central PGA Hall of Fame.
“My experience at the Mount was very spiritual for me,” she said. “Golf was a great experience because I had very good mentors and golf pros who took really good care of me. What I learned at the Mount is the sacrifice that people in vocations make and the meaning of the church. It isn’t playing golf that I remember most about those days, it’s what people did for me and the things they did for students that they didn’t have to.”
From Left: Lillie York ’27, Chloe Freville ’26, Ana Bella Gutierrez ’26 and Maria Ezzi ’26 at the 2025 PGA High School Golf National Invitational at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in North Carolina
Left: (from left) 2024 State Champions
Amelia Green ’28, Bella Craiglow ’25, Ana Bella Gutierrez ’26, Lillie York ’27, Chloe Freville ’26, Maria Ezzi ’26 and Maddie Hernandez ’27
In 2024, the team had a new coach but a familiar result, laying waste to the state championship
field ... as the Belles steamrolled their way to a second title by 20 strokes.
AThe Long Game
ASHLEY JONES AND GOLF ENJOY A LIFELONG PARTNERSHIP
shley Jones ’06 was anointed to play golf by her late father, who bought a set of clubs in the hopes she would one day grow into them as well as a love for the game. She was two when he died and took her first swing at about age four.
“Dad had bought a set of golf clubs from a yard sale or an estate sale, I think. My mom still has them in the house,” she said. “My mother’s best friend was kind of like a semi-professional golfer back in the 1980s and early ’90s in Little Rock. He got me involved with the sport.”
Ashley had an off-again, on-again relationship with the sport during her formative years. She dropped the game entirely for a while after she discovered and pursued basketball, coming back to the links in middle school.
She arrived at Mount St. Mary the way a lot of Mount girls do, thanks to her religious heritage and an appreciation for the school’s reputation for excellence.
“I was born and raised Catholic. I went to a parochial school at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Little Rock,” she said. “Back then, you went from parochial school straight to Mount or Catholic, you know? That was the path. I knew I didn’t really have a choice; it was going to be Mount St. Mary’s.”
Ashley graduated from MSM in 2006 having made lifelong friendships and developed leadership and academic skills. However, ironically, she did not play one hole of golf as a Belle. A dominant player in the junior golf ranks during high school, she never played for the school team.
“I remember, I’d talk to golf coaches at different schools and they would tell me, ‘Hey, I’ve got a spot for you on our team,’” Ashley said. “I’d go back and tell my mom about it and she was like, ‘I’m not pulling you out of Mount,’ and that was it. To me, it was for the better.”
Ashley graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2011 with a degree in business administration and served as a volunteer coach to the Razorback women’s golf team while on the Hill. Throughout her professional career she’s advanced the game of golf as a PGA Professional, private golf coach, and in helping run prestigious LPGA, PGA, All Pro and IMG Junior World golf events. Today, she is based in Chicago where she serves as vice president of business development for Women's Elite Rugby, the first professional women's rugby league in the United States.
“The Mount, to me, was about friendships and it was also about the education,” she said. “MSM has a very prestigious reputation, and while I admit I was not the best student, I still learned so much that I use to this day.
“Going to the Mount also broke me out of my shell a little bit. I was actually a pretty shy kid, although you would not have known that when I was out on the golf course. Mount built me into who I am in character and leadership.”
in School History
DEE DEE SPRICK TAUGHT GENERATIONS OF MOUNT GIRLS OVER 40 YEARS
TO SURVIVE IN ANY CAREER FOR FOUR DECADES TAKES SKILL AND TO MAKE IT THAT LONG TEACHING HIGH SCHOOLERS, EVEN THE COMPARABLY ANGELIC MOUNT GIRLS, REQUIRES A SPECIAL KIND OF PERSON.
Dee Dee walked onto campus in 1986 ... and is preparing to enter retirement at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.
“ History is being made every day and students need to be able to recognize the interconnectedness of current events and the lessons of the past. ”
- DEE DEE SPRICK
Right: Yearbook photo from Dee Dee’s first year teaching in 1986-87
Feed Sheep
MY
FOR FIVE DECADES, ROBIN HOOD DAYS HAS DEMONSTRATED MERCY VALUES IN THE COMMUNITY
ELLEN BRADY’S MOUNT ST.MARY EXPERIENCE WAS NOTABLE FOR A COUPLE OF REASONS.
Above: 2025-26 Student Council leaders (front row, from left) Molly Ross ’28, Julia Brown ’26, Josie Wrape ’26, Laurel Price ’29, (back row, from left) Miriam Cortes ’27, Lydia Tumlison ’29, Annie Burkhead ’26, Josie Guapo ’28 and Emerson Chambers ’27
The school newspaper’s recap of the
Freshmen and sophomores show
“ It’s not just competition ... this is showing our gratitude for what we do have and what we can share with members of our community. ”
- NOËL GIERINGER ’06
Katherine Kell Mason ’96 and her dad at the Robin Hood Days father-daughter dance in 1995
Juniors proudly pose by the boat full of cans their class collected in 1993
“ Mount is a school that is based primarily on service and helping others, and Robin Hood Days is the biggest outward example of that.”
- JOSIE WRAPE ’26
Theresa Lincicome Harrell ’01 and Kimberly Idom ’01 add bags of cans to the juniors’ stash in 1999
Robin Hood Days chants
a truck with cans for The Helping Hand in 2021
grin alongside their haul for the Arkansas Foodbank in 2015
Know It All
TEST YOUR MSM IQ
ARE THESE TALES ABOUT MOUNT ST. MARY ACADEMY FACT OR FICTION? SEE HOW WELL YOU KNOW THE SCHOOL’S HISTORY!
1
2
3
Boys once attended Mount St. Mary as students.
The school has always been located at 3224 Kavanaugh Boulevard.
Mount St. Mary Academy’s graduation ceremony used to take place in the school’s gymnasium.
4
The Mercian has always been the name of Mount St. Mary Academy’s yearbook.
Our Alma Mater is sung to the tune of a popular song recorded by Bing Crosby.
6
There has never been more than one queen selected during Catholic High’s football Homecoming.
There was once a swimming pool in the basement of the McAuley Center gymnasium.
The Sisters of Mercy and Mount St. Mary Academy students contributed to the war efforts during both the Civil War and World War II.
9
10
1 1
12
The Rockettes dance team were named after the famous New York City Rockettes because of the kickline they still perform today.
The original bell from the first school building is still on campus today.
Mount St. Mary Academy is the only all-girls school in Arkansas.
The houndstooth skirt has always been part of the student uniform.
Know It All THE ANSWERS
1 FACT. When the school was founded in 1851, and up until 1908, the Sisters of Mercy educated both boys and girls. You might have heard something like this in those days: “Boys, you must stop dipping the girls’ pigtails into the inkwells!”
2 FICTION. The school was originally located at 7th and Louisiana Streets in downtown Little Rock, across the street from the Cathedral of St. Andrew. In 1908, the school moved to its current location atop a hill, prompting a name change to Mount St. Mary Academy to reflect its new home.
3 FACT. In 1930, the first graduation ceremony was held in the gym. Graduations continued there until 1967, when they were moved to Robinson Auditorium.
4 FICTION. The first yearbook, printed in 1924, was called The Mirror. It was discontinued in 1927. In 1934, publication resumed under a new name: The Mercian
5
FACT. Our Alma Mater is sung to the tune of “The Bells of St. Mary’s.” Originally composed by Emmett Adams and written by Douglas Furber in 1917, the song was revived in 1945 when Bing Crosby recorded it for the year’s topgrossing film of the same name.
6
FICTION. For several years, Homecoming featured a game between the Catholic High Rockets and the Subiaco Academy Trojans. Each school selected a queen from Mount St. Mary Academy.
7
FACT. The McAuley Center gymnasium, completed in 1929, housed the state’s first indoor swimming pool at a school. It was removed during the last gym renovation in 2006. The space now houses a state-of-the-art workout facility for our studentathletes.
8 FACT. During the Civil War, the Sisters of Mercy converted part of the school into a hospital, caring for both Union and Confederate soldiers. During World War II, students supported the war effort by selling war stamps and bonds, and a nursing class was added to the curriculum.
9
FICTION. While today’s Rockettes impress crowds with their halftime kicklines, the original group served as the Catholic High Pep Squad. Their name was actually inspired by Catholic High’s mascot, the Rockets, and not the famous New York City Rockettes.
10
FACT. The bell gifted to St. Mary’s by Arkansas’ first Catholic bishop Andrew Byrne at the school’s original location now resides in the foyer. Each year on our birthday, student leaders ring the bell once for every year of Mount’s treasured history.
11
FACT. Not only are we the oldest continuously operated school in the state, but we also distinguish ourselves as the only all-female one. No boys, no problem! Research shows the benefits of an all-girls education include higher academic achievement and greater opportunities to build leadership skills and confidence.
12
FICTION. The houndstooth skirt didn’t become part of the uniform until the late 1960s. Before then, a uniform of navy skirts, white shirts, and navy ties was the norm.
A Moment IN TIME
ALUMS TAPPED FOR SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY KEEPSAKES
MISSION VIEJO, CALIFORNIA, AND LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, RESIDE 1,600 MILES AND TWO TIME ZONES APART, BUT A PAIR OF ARTISTIC ALUMNAE ARE PROVING TIME AND DISTANCE ARE NO MATCH FOR A SHARED MOUNT PEDIGREE.
Top: Meg Taylor Chase modeling the bracelet she designed for the school’s 175th anniversary
Bottom: Caira Hess at Laguna College of Art + Design in California, where she currently attends college
3224 Kavanaugh Blvd. Little Rock, AR 72205
Parents of MSM alumnae, if your daughter has finished college and you are receiving her Messenger at your home, please notify the Advancement Office of her change of address so the magazine can be sent directly to her in the future. Call 501-476-3375 or email ccole@mtstmary.edu.
On February 6, students filled the foyer for Mount’s first-ever “Nun Run,” a festive dash through campus celebrating the school’s 175th anniversary. Participants donned traditional habits and party hats to honor nearly two centuries of history.
