Sister Mary Jude Cecil, OSU: "...is genuinely loved by the students."     

     Seigneur, écoute ma prière, je lève mon ame vers Toi....
     The joyful voices of Sister Mary Jude’s sophomore French students at Saint Mary High School in Paducah flow from room 208 each morning as they sing Seigneur, Écoute Ma Prière (Lord, Listen To My Prayer) in response to their daily petitions.

     It isn’t just singing that makes Sister Mary Jude’s French classes special. “She is probably one of the greatest teachers that I have ever had,” says sophomore Kirsten Sturm. “She adds so much to the classroom than just using our books. We sing, we pray, have fun and have wonderful French parties.”
     Sister Mary Jude’s French classes have been a fixture in the Saint Mary curriculum since she returned for her second tenure at the school and reinstalled the program in the fall of 1985. She originally taught French at St. Mary from 1970 to 1974. During that time she also served one year as the school’s assistant principal. She presently teaches four levels of French and advanced placement courses for college credit.
     Becoming a teacher was no surprise for Sister Mary Jude, one of nine children born to Daviess County farmer Tony Cecil and his wife, Lucy P. Hayden Cecil, a 1924 graduate of the Mount Saint Joseph Academy. Tony was also a Ford farm machinery salesman.
     “I knew in about the sixth or seventh grade that I wanted to be a teacher,” Sister Mary Jude recalls, “I knew I wanted to teach after tutoring some of my brothers and sisters and being taught and inspired by Ursuline sisters. I knew I wanted to teach because I loved to see that light that comes on in the eyes

of somebody that you’ve taught something they didn’t know. And because of the sisters’ joy, simplicity and generosity, I wanted to be like them. They were my role models.”
     Born in Owensboro — the middle child among the Cecils’ nine children — and raised on the farm near Utica, Sister Mary Cecil attended grades 1-6 at Saint William Grade School at Knottsville and grades 7 and 8 at Saint Joseph Grade School in Owensboro. She attended Saint Joseph High School for two years before transferring to Mount Saint Joseph Academy for her final two years of high school.
     Sister Mary Cecil became a postulant in 1950, made temporary vows in 1952, then began her teaching career in September of 1952 at Saint Catherine Grade School at New Haven, teaching fourth, fifth and sixth graders. After three years at New Haven, she moved on to Rosary Chapel School in Paducah for two years teaching fifth through eighth grades, then to Saint Mary School in Nebraska City, Nebraska, as grade school principal and eighth-grade teacher for two years.
     She returned to Rosary Chapel for an eight-year tenure as principal, fifth- eighth grade teacher, and cafeteria manager. 

     After earning her bachelor of arts degree in French from Brescia College in 1967, she began teaching French for the first time at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, where she stayed for three years before beginning her first venture at Saint Mary High School in 1970.
     She was called to Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis to teach French and religion for 11 years before returning to Paducah and Saint Mary in 1986.
     Rosann Whiting has known Sister Mary Jude for 15 years. After serving six years as Saint Mary Middle School principal, Rosann became her boss nine years ago when she was named high school principal. She has plenty to say about her legendary French teacher. “Sister Mary Jude is a dedicated teacher, a compassionate human being who lives her ministry on a daily basis. She is very pupil-centered and probably gives 110 percent in everything she does for the school.“
     She continues, “Sister Mary Jude is certainly the rock or the backbone of Saint Mary High School. She is respected by her peers, is held in high esteem by parents of her students, and is genuinely loved by the students.”

     Sophomore Luke Daily says of his French teacher, “Compared to other teachers, she is very motivating and encouraging. Besides teaching me French, she’s taught me life lessons as well.”
     Classmate Paul Thomasson adds, “Sister Mary Jude has changed my study habits by showing me her way of studying and has brought my grades up considerably.”
     Co-worker and longtime friend Laura Lambert, a social studies teacher at SMHS, has a personal relationship with Sister Mary Jude. She says, “We are really good friends and I can always count on her, especially with her room being across the hall from mine. We have the buddy system in place and we can call on each other when needed.”

     She continued, “She’s been just a wonderful friend of my family at times of need. She and my late brother were good friends. She’s always there when we need her.”
     Office secretary Peggy Word is impressed with Sister Mary Jude’s relationship with her students. “Whenever she’s in the office and one of the kids comes in and asks ‘can I use the phone?’ she’ll stare at the student with that stern look of hers and repeat ‘can I use the phone?’ The student will quickly respond with ‘can I use the phone, please?’”
     “She jokingly tells us that when she retires from teaching she is going to come to work at the front desk and teach the kids their manners!”
     Office clerk Pam Shoulta has known Sister Mary Jude for the last eight years. “She’s always coming into our office and giving an encouraging word to make our day,” she says. “And I notice how her students — when they have been off for a break — are really glad to come back because they miss her. They miss her and show a lot of admiration for her.”
     When asked to relate her fondest memory after 54 years of teaching, Sister Mary Jude didn’t hesitate a second to answer. “It happened in 1972,” she quickly recalled, “when my students and their parents held car washes, raffles and other fundraisers to send me to France for the first time. They raised the money for my ticket and spending money, and I spent four weeks touring France. That was my Renaissance, right there! I was never the same person. It enlarged me, and stretched me, and taught me. And made me a much better teacher.”

     Since that first trip in 1972, Sister Mary Jude has made a number of return visits to France. But she will quickly tell you that none of them compares to that first trip given to her by her students and their parents following their many weeks of work on fundraising projects.
     Fifty-four years of teaching, 40 years teaching French. Why teaching? Why French? Says Sister Mary Jude, “The reason I have such a passion for the language and for teaching is that your students walk in and they know nothing, and then when they leave after advanced placement — especially the college course — they’re able to speak, to comprehend, to read, to write, to listen and to know all their skills, and they can go to Europe and travel and live in France, and study in France, and some can marry and raise families there. It is just so gratifying because it’s that same spark in their eyes that I saw when I tutored my little brothers and sisters. The gratification, the joy, and the reward, it is. It’s true we can get rewards here as well as shining as stars for all eternity.”