Sister Rose Germaine Guettler
1912-2008
At the celebration of Sister Rose Germaine Guettler’s Golden Jubilee, one of her nieces described Sister Rose Germaine’s life as “lived to build, to bring healing to others, to create beauty and love, and to make things a little better.” She described Sister Rose Germaine as “a warm, loving woman filled with kindness, sympathy, humility, understanding, and unbounded love of children.”
The woman given such high praise was one of the five daughters of Edward Adam and Marie Elizabeth (Ritten) Guettler, and the eighth of their ten surviving children. Born on February 2, 1912, in Cologne, Minnesota, she was baptized Germaine Mary. Her sisters and brothers were: Amanda, George, Florence, Leo, Frank, Vincent, Edward Conrad (died when a year old), Edward William, Dolores, and Marie.
Both parents were Minnesota natives and of German ancestry. Edward Guettler was from Cologne. He and two of his brothers owned a flour mill, of which he was the manager. Marie Elizabeth Ritten was originally from Litchfield, and later moved to Crary, North Dakota, and then to Cologne where she met her husband. After their marriage and the arrival of their family, they saw to it that their children’s lives were happy.
The flour mill was a source of great fun for the younger Guettlers. By tying a heavy rope to one of the rafters, an ideal swing was created and hours could be spent swinging back and forth from the loft to the floor… At times, when the rope was a little too long, the jumper would have a very uncomfortable encounter with the rough wooden ramp.
The father had also built a playhouse for his children. It burned to the ground one day when, after dressing like nuns and playing school, they were smoking punk and forgot to make sure that the matches were out. Then the father and older boys put a huge tent on the vacant lot across the street, where the smaller children could play. In addition, they went swimming since they lived near a lake, and on shopping sprees to Minneapolis.
The children attended St. Bernard School in Cologne, where Germaine also studied music for two years. In 1925, when she was twelve, the family moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, where Edward Guettler became manager of the Peerless Ice Cream Factory. At the wake, Sister Dorothy Guettler, Sister Rose Germaine’s niece, inserted a note of humor:
They drove down in a car which held her parents, three sisters, and her. It took them two weeks. They did stop a few times to see places of interest. Their dog sat on the running board, attached to a leash.
For her last year in elementary school, Germaine attended a public school and worked after school at the ice cream factory. There was no Catholic school in Fort Pierce at that time and the parents were unhappy about this. They, therefore, decided to enroll her at Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach for her high school years.
For several years Germaine had cherished a desire to become a religious sister, but not a sister in black, the only sisters she had known. She wanted to wear white. When the Guettlers arrived at Rosarian Academy on September 19, 1926, and an Adrian Dominican Sister, a sister wearing a white habit, answered the door, Germaine was delighted. She immediately decided to enter the Adrian Congregation, and she did so that very day. As a postulant she taught part-time at St. Ann, also in West Palm Beach, and lived and studied at Rosarian until May, then went to Adrian to finish the postulate. On August 4, 1927, she received the habit and her religious name, and entered the novitiate.
Since Sister Rose Germaine was only fifteen, Mother Augustine Walsh had hoped to keep her in Adrian. Many schools were opened that year, however, and the novices were needed as teachers. Sister Rose Germaine, therefore, was sent to St. Gabriel School in Detroit where she taught a very large class of first graders. Although it was a somewhat chaotic year, it was a happy one for her. She spent the next year in Adrian as a novice, and professed her first vows on August 6, 1929.
Her first assignment as a professed sister was again in Florida, where her entire ministerial life was spent, twenty-three years on the primary level. She was assigned to St. Patrick in Miami Beach for seven years, then spent ten years at St. Anthony in Fort Lauderdale. At the wake Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, said:
It was there that Leo [her brother] and Ida came to visit and went to Sister Rose’s classroom. Leo saw a reading chart, and while Sister Rose and Ida were chatting, he busied himself putting stars after the names of all the poor little kids who hadn’t read much. Sister Rose was frustrated, but those first graders believed in Santa Claus for many years.
In 1946 Sister Rose Germaine returned to St. Ann School for six years.
During the summers she studied at Barry College (now University) in Miami; and in June 1942 the college conferred upon her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in history and French. She continued her summer studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and in August 1952 received a master’s degree in education. During the summer of 1950, she had the privilege of a trip to Europe, where she traveled through Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.
Her appointment for 1952 filled her with some anxiety. She became superior and principal at Blessed Sacrament in Tallahassee, and taught a combination of third and fourth grades. Sisters Nora Richard Leahy and Aileen McClain were with her, and the three of them became fast friends. At her Golden Jubilee celebration, her niece said:
It took awhile to break down the prejudices because the people had never seen sisters before and visibly showed their fear. By the opening of school in 1953, the enrollment had doubled. Sister Rose Germaine was invited to sit in on all the board meetings of the public schools. The public school system had given a thousand books to the Blessed Sacrament School Library, and Blessed Sacrament was known as the “reading school” because the children there so surpassed the children from other schools. Sister Rose Germaine had made quite an impact!
At the end of her successful six-year term, Sister Rose Germaine was assigned to St. Joseph in Miami Beach, again with middle and junior high students. In the late afternoons and evenings, she taught classes at Barry College.
She had earned a reputation as a fine teacher, and in 1961 she was assigned as supervisor of the Adrian Dominican Schools in Florida, with her residence at Rosarian Academy. Sister Rosa Monique Peña, now a member of the Adrian Dominican General Council, remembered:
I had Sister Rose Germaine as my supervisor. She was a very serious woman. I was teaching reading and had about forty-eight students. She had taught reading and knew just what to do, so she gave us inexperienced teachers instructions. She would sit in the back of the classroom and watch us teach. Then we’d walk to the back of the classroom where she was, and she’d give us a piece of paper with suggestions on it. Believe me, I learned to teach reading!
One day she said to me, “I’d like you to be part of a teachers’ day and give a demonstration of how to teach reading.” I did that. When I finished, I took a seat in front, and she didn’t know that I was sitting there. She said to the assembled teachers, “If she as a foreigner can do this, so can you!” I don’t know if that was a compliment or not, but I’m very thankful to her because she made a teacher of me.
At that time Sister Dorothy’s younger brothers, sisters, and many cousins were students at St. Anastasia in Fort Pierce. At the wake she said, “As Congregation supervisor, Aunt Germaine would come to St. Anastasia School. She had at least three or four relatives in each classroom, and they all had to be good!”
Sister Rose Germaine was an able and conscientious supervisor. Twice a year she visited the schools in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington, DC, and once a year the schools in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. She also was given some privileges. During the summer of 1964, she visited Hawaii, and in 1967 she enjoyed a trip to the Virgin Islands.
Beginning with 1968, Sister Rose Germaine served the Archdiocese of Miami for three years, a year as supervisor and two years as assistant superintendent of schools. Then for two years she served as reading consultant at St. Anastasia in Fort Pierce. There she began a special reading program that she continued during the summers. In 1973 she again took on the responsibility of administration at St. Helen in Vero Beach. She served seven years as principal, then five years as a special reading teacher there. She was remembered as hospitable and thoughtful, and a wonderful principal.
In 1985 she returned to St. Ann for three years. In 1988 Sister Aileen became principal of Trinity Catholic School (originally Blessed Sacrament) in Tallahassee, and Sister Rose Germaine spent fifteen years there as a part-time special reading teacher. During these years she and Sister Aileen shared an apartment.
Sister Rose Germaine retired in 2003 at the age of ninety-one, and continued living for a year in Tallahassee. Her health was failing, so in 2004 she and Sister Aileen returned to Adrian—she to the Maria Building of the Dominican Life Center and Sister Aileen to Regina Residence. Sister Rose Germaine died on October 24, 2008, at the age of ninety-six with Sister Aileen at her bedside.
Sister Rose Germaine’s wake-remembrance service was held on October 27 in St. Catherine Chapel. Present was her niece, Sister Dorothy Guettler, OP, her nephew Edward and his wife Mary Lynn; her dear friend Sister Aileen McClain and some of the McClain family; and her many Dominican friends. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service, welcomed those present, and extended sympathy. She summarized Sister Rose Germaine’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last years in Adrian.
Sister Rose was much loved by her family and others who knew her. She had a marvelous dry sense of humor and a hearty laugh. She loved to joke with sisters and co-workers in the dining room. Of course, while the nurses did care for her, Sister Aileen was her constant companion.
Sister Dorothy Guettler, Sister Rose Germaine’s niece, said in part:
The nieces and nephews always called Sister “Aunt Germaine.” She had seventy-seven nieces and nephews, and seventy-one are still living. We all waited for the times that Aunt Germaine would come for her home visit. There were seven siblings living in Fort Pierce, so her parents would bring her to one home each day of the week.
After I entered, Aunt Germaine would be my companion. We both loved to go fishing and crabbing. One time when we went fishing, there was a ditch filled with water that we had to cross. We looked at it, and Aunt Germaine said, “Take off your shoes, pull up your skirts, and let’s cross over.” We did that, and we had a successful time of fishing.
She was one in a million. We all loved her very much and were so proud that she was our aunt. We will all miss her terribly.
Sister Rose Celeste O’Connell, Secretary of the Congregation, remembered:
I lived with her in Florida. She was a wonderful woman to live with. She would pull tricks on people, then act innocent so no one guessed that she was the one pulling the tricks. There are many wonderful memories of her. She did a great job with the little children in the reading program. She loved the Congregation and the sisters, and was a joyful person.
Sister Aileen McClain sent a message that was read at the wake.
In Sister Rosie’s name, as well as my own, I would like to express deep appreciation to all of our sisters for their prayerful support at this difficult time, to both of our families for their care and concern, to the nurses and aides on 2-South who cared for her so lovingly, to the kitchen crew who teased and joked with her, and to her pastoral minister who was always there for both of us.
Sister Rose Germaine’s funeral liturgy was celebrated on October 28. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist.
As Sister Joan said, Sister Rose Germaine worked joyfully with little children in God’s vineyard. She is now with her Lord and the loved ones who preceded her, enjoying and rejoicing in God’s presence and bounty.