Jubilarian Sister Shirley Ann Simmons

Jubilarians

The oldest of four children, Sister Shirley Ann was born in 1924 in Heartwell, Nebraska, to Niles and Ella Simmons. The family moved to Sutherland, Nebraska, when Shirley Ann was in grade school. Her father was a farmer who raised corn and cattle. She first encountered the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville at her home parish, Holy Family Church, when she attended catechism class in the summer for two weeks. Sister Shirley Ann says that the parish priest got the Ursulines to come from St. Patrick parish, in North Platte, to teach.

Shirley Ann loved going to school, did very well and participated in the county spelling contests annually. She attended public school until high school, then went to St. Patrick High School, in North Platte, where she was taught by Ursulines. The high school was 30 miles from home, so she recalls that, “I stayed with a nice family. They had two children and since St. Patrick was K-12, I helped their little girl get to and from school.”

Shirley Ann received a four-year scholarship to Ursuline College, in Louisville, which her parents encouraged her to accept. She wasn’t fond of going so far from home for college, as her original plan was to attend Kearney State Teacher’s College, in Nebraska, and become a teacher as her mother had been. But it was during the World War II era and money was tight, so she didn’t think it very wise to give up the opportunity of using the scholarship.

During her freshman year of college, she felt called to become a Catholic Sister, so in January of 1942 she entered the Ursuline community in Louisville. Sister recalls one incident as a postulant, where “there was a plate of cookies that somehow ended up in our area. When Sister Sylvester Ahlhaus, who oversaw the postulants, returned to the room, the cookies were gone!” she says, laughing. “We were just young kids and couldn’t resist those cookies!”

Sister Shirley Ann began her 55-year teaching career in 1944 at St. Boniface parish school, Louisville, and then taught at Catholic schools in Cumberland, Maryland, returning to St. Boniface in 1954. In 1957, she was sent west to Nebraska. While teaching at Blessed Sacrament School, in Omaha, and attending graduate classes, Sister received a master’s degree from Creighton University.

Sister also served at St. Elizabeth (principal and superior) and Our Lady of Lourdes, both in Louisville. She returned to Nebraska where she once again ministered at Blessed Sacrament, and then served as principal at St. Patrick’s school and McDaid Elementary, in North Platte, and was principal for 25 years at St. Luke parish school, in Ogallala, where Sister Loretta Krajewski followed her as principal of the school.

After retiring from teaching, Sister Shirley Ann decided to serve in ministry at St. Luke parish (19992012.) She says that, “When it came to the point that I thought I should get out of teaching, I thought I was still good for something, so I thought I could serve in the parish.” She served as eucharistic minister, and visited shut-ins, the sick and those in nursing homes. She also served on the parish council, did bereavement ministry and worked with the RCIA program.

In 2012, Sister Shirley Ann returned to Louisville, where she volunteered in the Ursuline archives and at United Crescent Hill Ministries. Today, she ministers through her prayer and presence at Nazareth HomeClifton. At 97-years-young, Sister Shirley Ann says she has no health issues and reads “anything I can get my hands on!” Sister says that she has loved all her 80 years of being an Ursuline Sister of Louisville.