Sister Jane Elizabeth Berg
1922-2009
An article in a 1999 issue of Detroit’s Daily Tribune featured a picture of Sister Jane Elizabeth Berg, aged seventy-seven, and called her “an unsung hero.” She was given this title because of her volunteer work at the Dominican Literacy Center, where she had for eleven years tutored adults in reading, writing, and math skills.
When not teaching or praying, Sister enjoys reading, crocheting, and helping at the senior cooperative. She also pitches in at Literacy Center’s annual walk-a-thons, which last year raised $10,000 for the adult reading effort. “But my ministry is very important to me,” she said. “Sometimes I have to set aside everything else because the ministry is first.”
Christened Margaret, Sister Jane Elizabeth was born on June 24, 1922, in Royal Oak, Michigan, one of the thirteen children parented by Peter and Elizabeth (Miller) Berg: Elizabeth, Peter, Edna, Raymond, Florence, Matthew (died as an infant), Dorothy, Ann, Joseph (died as an infant), Margaret, Alfred, Edward, and Rose. Elizabeth, Dorothy, and Margaret entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation. Ann and Rose remained single. They took care of their parents and of Edward in his last sickness. They also cared for Edward’s daughter Khristine, and she has been Rose’s caregiver since Ann’s death in 1999.
The grandparents on both sides of the family were from Germany. The maternal grandfather was a miller. He must have lived near Battle Creek, Michigan, since when he ran into difficulties he sold out to the Kellogg Company and moved to Detroit. There he raised his family and helped to build Sacred Heart Church.
Peter Berg and Elizabeth Miller met in Detroit, and married in 1908. After a few years they moved to Pontiac, then to Royal Oak. They lived at first in a rented house; but then Peter Berg, with the help of relatives and friends, built a house that continued to grow with his family. It eventually became a two-story house with a basement. Although he was a talented carpenter, he took a job in the Ford plant as a sheet metal worker where he earned a salary that enabled him to provide a good life for his wife and children.
Margaret began her education at Grant Public School, then transferred to St. Mary School where she finished elementary school and two years of high school. On June 29, 1938, five days after her sixteenth birthday, she and her older sister Dorothy entered the postulate at Adrian, following their sister Elizabeth, who was known as Sister Marie Arlene. On January 3, 1939, both received the habit and their religious names. Margaret became known as Sister Jane Elizabeth, and Dorothy as Sister Peter Marie. Both professed their first vows on January 4, 1940. Later one of their cousins entered and was known for several years as Sister Robert Lawrence. She is now Sister Judith Benkert. It is interesting to note that the Berg sisters also had three priest cousins.
Within a few days of profession Sister Jane Elizabeth was on her way to Illinois, where she taught subjects in grades two and four at St. Celestine School in Elmwood Park. Sickness must have come upon her, as she was in the hospital during summer 1941. In September she was brought back to Michigan, where she spent the next eleven years mostly with middle grade students: two years at St. Joseph in Port Huron, four years at St. Brigid in Detroit, and five years at St. Gabriel in Detroit. During the summer of 1949, as a result of summer work, Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in history and minors in English and Latin.
In 1952 she was assigned as principal and superior at St. Luke in Flint, and also taught first grade. It may be that she was not well and did not relish the administrative position, for the next year she was sent to Little Flower in Hollywood, Florida, where she taught eighth grade for two years, and received medical attention during summer 1954. Returning to Michigan, she taught first grade for a year at St. Mary in Adrian, second and seventh grades at St. Lawrence in Detroit for a little over three years, and junior high students for almost three years at Our Lady Gate of Heaven in Detroit. During this time medical attention was again necessary during summer 1959. The 1962-63 year was at Precious Blood, also in Detroit.
Her health was again failing, and she spent several months in 1963 as office clerk at St. Brigid in Detroit. In December 1963 sickness had come upon her in earnest, and she spent the next months as a patient at St. Clement Infirmary in Adrian until September 1964. During the next three summers medical attention was necessary.
When she returned to the classroom in September 1964, she again taught on the junior high level. She spent a year at St. Jude in Detroit; a year at St. Henry in Cleveland, Ohio; and six years at St. Lawrence in Utica, Michigan, also serving as assistant principal. As a result of summer study, she earned a master’s degree in guidance and counseling at the University of Detroit, which was awarded to her in June 1970.
In 1972 she was assigned to St. Alphonsus in Dearborn as guidance counselor. The next year she was at St. Lawrence in Utica, Michigan, for the second time, where she spent seventeen years, a year as guidance counselor, seven years as a teacher, and nine years in retirement and as a volunteer. A 1979 newspaper article about St. Lawrence School indicated that there were sixteen teachers, two of these were men and “only one nun.” That one nun was Sister Jane Elizabeth. The article quoted her as saying:
I’m here by choice. It’s a new thought for us sisters that now we can do our own thing, and if we want to do something other than teaching, we can. Many are in social service, many in religious education. Teaching here is what I enjoy.
When she left St. Lawrence School in 1990, Sister Jane Elizabeth lived in the Detroit area for eleven years and served as a volunteer at the Dominican Literacy Center, assisting adults in their reading, writing, and math skills. An article about the Center in the June 16, 1989, Michigan Catholic described the Center and its work, and spoke of the training prospective tutors received. Sister Jane Elizabeth was one of the prospective tutors interviewed.
Sister Jane Elizabeth didn’t have to think twice about volunteering for the program, and her enthusiasm was shared by all the religious at the tutor training. “Service has been our life,” she said. “We can’t give that up. This is a ministry.”
In her file is a card from Kaz Wisniewski, a former student at the Dominican Literacy Center, who has returned to his native Poland. The card was a Christmas greeting from 2000 and reads:
Dear Sister Jane, Long time past, but I still remember those days spent in America, still have a pleasant memory of you and other people from the school. It was one of the most wonderful periods in my life! Thanks for it again. On the occasion of Christmas and New Year’s, I wish you every happiness. Sincerely, Kaz.
In September 2007, at the age of eighty-five, Sister Jane Elizabeth returned to Adrian as a resident at the Dominican Life Center/Maria. God took her to eternity on June 30, 2009, six days after her eighty-seventh birthday.
A wake-remembrance service was held in St. Catherine Chapel, Adrian, for Sister Jane Elizabeth on July 1. Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service, extended sympathy, and summarized Sister Jane Elizabeth’s life and ministry. She added:
I met and lived with Sister Jane Elizabeth at Gate of Heaven in Detroit from 1959-62. When I greeted her in the Maria dining room last spring, she beamed a big smile at me saying, “Do you really remember me?” And I do! I remember her as a fine junior high teacher who cared about her students with the same perfection with which she taught.
Sometime between 1988 and 1990, she must have been asked to preach on the Retirement Fund Appeal for Religious Communities at Masses at St. Kieran Parish where she was in residence nearby. Excerpts from her homilies:
“Many of us here know of a favorite nun, a special teacher, a brother, a unique Sister Mary Ann or Brother Michael, one we remember fondly, and even write to occasionally, maybe on holidays. Or one who was ‘tough’ on us and made those multiplication tables absolutely unforgettable! You may even recall a good nun story, one you enjoy telling, and with each retelling the story gets better and the nun becomes larger than life.
“Today I want to tell you about that favorite sister or brother, that ‘old’ nun who served you in a school that may be closed now. For the most part, our Catholic training was a good experience and we have come to cherish the relationships we formed there . . . and the solid foundation in Christian values that have brought us to this point in time where we witness to the Faith and are giving it to our children and families.
“Some of these religious have been called home to God. . . . Yet there is a good chance that our Sister Mary Ann or Brother Michael may still be among us, as I am after forty-eight years as a Dominican Sister—and still going. The Church of the United States has been blessed by the dedicated service of hundreds of thousands of religious men and women. . . The crowds asked Jesus, ‘What are we to do?’ Today, in union with the Catholics of the nation, you have the opportunity to say, ‘Thank you, Sister.’”
Janie Garcia, who works in the Maria maintenance department and who had become a good friend of Sister Jane Elizabeth, said:
I took her out a year ago for her birthday. We went shopping at the Mall, then we went to the Red Lobster to get something to eat. There was quite a storm going on, and it was raining hard. We didn’t have an umbrella. A gentleman came along, helped us get to the car, and put the wheelchair in the trunk.
A few days ago we were talking and I said, “I’ll have to take you out to dinner sometime soon.” She laughed and said, “You’d better bring your boyfriend, because we don’t want to pick up any more men.”
Sister Marie Schoenlein spoke in praise of Sister Jane Elizabeth.
Sister Jane Elizabeth was one of the sisters who took the first tutor workshop in Detroit, and continued to tutor there. She helped some thirty adult learners to read, write, do basic math, and work with the computer. She became a surrogate parent to them.
I’m going to share a story with you tonight. It’s about a young man called Wiley. When Wiley came to us he was twenty-three years old, but he couldn’t read the street signs and it took three phone calls to get him to the center. Each time during the phone conversations we heard something, but didn’t know what it was. The mystery was solved when he arrived on his Harley Davidson and parked it in the breezeway. Then he entered the center, dressed in designer clothes and sparkling jewelry. . . . I asked him why he wanted to learn to read. He said that it was his mother’s wish for him, and that she had died just a short time before. I asked him if it was a sudden death, and he said that it was. “My dad went to his parents’ house, got into an argument with them, and shot them. Then he went home and told my mother what had happened, she was shocked, and he shot her. My father is now in jail.”
Wiley said that he knew learning all that he wanted to learn was going to be difficult. . . . He told us that he didn’t have a job. We asked him where he got the designer clothes and jewelry and he said, “You don’t want to know!” But he continued to come, and Sister Jane Elizabeth was the one we found for him. After two-and-a-half years he was reading on the sixth grade level. Then he asked if his sister could come. She was attending the Community College working on a master’s degree, but she was reading on the third grade level. Sister Jane turned Wiley around. He got a job, married, and became a responsible parent. We hear from him occasionally.
Sister Jane Elizabeth’s funeral liturgy was celebrated on July 2. Father Robert Kelly, OP, was the presider, and Sister Marcine Klemm was the homilist. She said in part:
Sister Jane Elizabeth [committed] many years to education. What greater gift can be given to others than to develop skills that will open doors throughout their lives. Reading is such an important skill. It enhances self-confidence, it is the open door to further learning that enables one to understand other peoples and their cultures.
She could be demanding at times. Tough love can be demanding as one is nurturing the potential growth in another. She was faithful to her profession. In her advanced years she moved to tutoring, one-on-one encounters, intense study, but her students learned. They left the program more confident than when they started.
Besides Kaz, many learners give thanks for Sister Jane Elizabeth and for the abilities that she taught them. Her gifts and talents, shared with those who studied with her, will continue to live on in them.