The young ladies pictured here are the graduating seniors of Saint Mary’s Academy from 1936. They represent many well-known Creole families from New Orleans and other parts of South Louisiana. The girls either attended as day students or as boarders within the historic Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second oldest order of religious women of color. The Motherhouse was located in the Vieux Carre on Orleans Avenue until 1965, when the Sisters moved to eastern New Orleans. Saint Mary’s Academy was founded in 1867 and has offered a preparatory high school course for young ladies since 1881. For many years, a grammar school course was also offered, something which was only recently reintroduced after Hurricane Katrina.
[Click on the photos to enlarge them and view the students’ activities and interests.]
Shown above are: Cornelia Antoinette DeLay, Marie Elizabeth Williams, Denise Margaret Quezergue, Mary Rita Arceneaux, Willie Belle McCoy, Beulah Elizabeth Lee.
Shown below are: Blanche Theresa Johnson, Hattie Carriere, Doretha Ollie Bell Berteaux, Grace Myrtle Broyard, Falcon Jocelyn Block, Mary Louise Raphael
These charming young “Maryites” were among the girls pictured in the school yearbook, Maris Stella, for the 1935-1936 term. (Cherrie Family Collection).
Lolita V. Cherrie
St. Mary’s 1936
Mary Rita Arceneaux aka
Sr. Mary Prompt
Succor of Sisters of the Holy Family recently passed away (April 2017) 1 no. short of her
98 th birthday. She was my Aunt & baby sister of my mother,Julia
Arceneaux Buckhalter.