Mary Thelma Cambron

1914 - Aft 1985  (> 71 years)

• Name	Mary Thelma Cambron  [1]
  Birth	6 Feb 1914	Union County, Kentucky   [1]
  Gender	Female
  Death	Aft 2 Aug 1985
  Origins
  Patriarch & Matriarch	Thomas Edward Cambron,   b. 20 Dec 1878, Union Co. Ky. d. 24 Mar 1965, Daviess County, Kentucky  (Age 86 years)  (Father)  Nettie Jenette Hardesty,   b. 23 Dec 1853   d. 3 Feb 1937, Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky  (Age 83 years)  (Grandmother)
  Person ID	I1573	1665 GOUGH/GOFF (US-MD-STM/US-VA-LOU) I-Y6902-A
  Last Modified	20 Oct 2023

  
  

  Father	Thomas Edward Cambron,   b. 20 Dec 1878, Union Co. Ky. d. 24 Mar 1965, Daviess County, Kentucky (Age 86 years)
  Mother	Mary Commie Thomas,   b. 2 Apr 1881, Daviess County, Kentucky d. 22 Aug 1977, Daviess County, Kentucky (Age 96 years)
  Marriage	21 Jan 1905	St. Alphonsos, Daviess Co, Ky   [1]
  Family ID	F1007	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  [Anastasia Gough from Tom Cambron.FTW] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THELMA CAMBRON, SCN I was bom February 6, 1914, near Morganfield, Kentucky in Union County. My parents were Tom and Commie Cambron and I had two brothers and two sisters older than I. Two of each came later. I attended grade school at St. Ann's in Morganfield, taught by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. I was transferred to second grade after two months because Mother had been teaching me at home. I enjoyed school and had many fullny happenings. The Sisters' long red underwear hung on the line in the play yard, and we would run and put our hands up the sleeves. Mother dressed us the way she wanted and maybe the length of our skirts didn't please some of the Sisters. One day one Sister told me she shut her eyes when she saw me coming. I replied, "If you shut your eyes how do you see me?' and went on to the classroom. When my sister, who was ready for eighth grade, was transferred to public school so she could take sewing and be able to help Mother who had to hire people to help her, this angered one of the Sisters and she started ranting to me about it. I replied, "If you have anything to say about this, take it up with my father," and dashed on to my classroom. Before entering I looked back and she stood with both hands on hips about ready to fight me. I enjoyed that. When growing up my two older sisters helped Mother in the kitchen, and I cleaned house, so I never did learn to cook. One day I was chasing my sis around a table in thy parlor and we knocked offa vase and broke it. We ran outsideand stayed until dark, because we foresaw a whipping, which we got on our return. The vase was a family heirloom. While !n eighth grade, I got three front teeth knocked out at Hallowe'en and my teacher was furious because I was the County Spelling Bee next day. I won it, anyway. We had a mound in the front yard and I'd sit on it for hours while my brother tried to hypnotize me. It never worked. I won a scholarship to St. Vincent Academy, so I boarded there for four years, which I enjoyed. Sister Paolina gave me clarinet lessons so I could play in the big orchestra. She even had a harp. Sister put on big programs and we were taught how to dance, also. That was great! My boy friend came out with my cousins to see me, since that was the only way he could get in. When I was 14 Dad taught me how to drive our Model A Ford, so 1 would take my brother's car with a rumble seat and drive friends out to St. Vincent. I forgot to mention that I grew up on roller skates, tennis courts, and race horses. We had concrete sidewalks. Daddy built us a tennis court after I kept pestering him and he had horses that wouldn't let any horse get past them on wide country roads. In Cherokee Park in Louisville (when I was in college) the hSrses took a step slowly and I said, "Not kind of horseback riding I know." When I graduated from high school I got a scholarship to Nazareth College in Louisville (now Spalding University). I loved it there and learned to play tennis at Central Park. Freshmen at Nazareth College were not permitted to attend the dances in the front hall. I would sit on the steps leading to the second floor and soon some fellow would call me down and I'd dance all evening and I never got thrown out. The Sisters took turns eating with us in the big dining room. Ailer the meal they stayed and scraped dishes and we went into the drawing room to have fun. When Sister Mary Ramona was scraping, we would put on the record "Ramona" and play it very loud to disturb her. My roommate was Sister Mary Anastasia's (President) private secretary, so we frequently were sent to the Post Office at 10 o'clock at night to take important mail. On our return we stopped at Canary Cottage (now Palace Theatre) and had some fun. Other students were in bed, since we could only be out on Friday and Saturday nights. When I was a little girl at home I loved to lick the pans after Mother finished her desserts. One day she said, "Well, you won't do any licking when you go off to school." The first night 1 was there, I was sitting in the front hall and Sister Mary Simeonette came out with a large dish pan and handed it to me saying, "You look like a licker." (The CSMC was selling candy the next day.) I did all my licking and ran upstairs to write Mother to tell her I had just finished licking. One day when playing tennis at Central Park with Uriel Rap and Ellen Mattingly, I told them I was going to the novitiate at Nazareth. They were so shocked they didn't play any more tennis--just leaned on their rackets, looking at me in amazement, and shaking their heads. They both followed me later. When I entered college my idea was to graduate, get a good job, and travel to see the world. Then I'd enter the novitiate at Nazareth. By June I realized this wouldn't work, so I entered the convent in September. We were up at 4:50 A.M. and did nothing but pray and work (hard work). Once every month I told the novice mistress I had to get out, that it was ruining me, but she wouldn't let me go. They were letting others leave, and sending some home, but I was kept. They said it wasn't God's will, so I stayed, and I've thanked God that I did for the rest of my life. Mother Bertrand had been superior at St. Vincent, and I guess she thought I had some gumption. Praise the Lord, 1 stayed. After vows I was sent to take over the "little kitchen" which served the sick Sisters. The regular cook, Sister Germaine was ill. I told them I couldn't cook, but was sent anyway. Sister said she knew I was there a long time as a novice, but I told her all that we did was carry coal for the big stove, carry trays and wash dishes. We washed contaminated dishes in the same water with other dishes. There was no such thing as Public Health in those days or we would have been shut down right away. Most of the food came from the "big kitchen", but I put bread on trays and put it in the oven and it came out with cute little growths (mold), but 1 served it. They got their antibiotics that day. I wasn't there long before I was relieved of my duties. After this I was sent to St. Joseph Hospital, Lexington, to be a medical technologist. I told them I had never heard of the "creature" and I was afraid of hospitals, because in our small town there were none, so people went to Evansville and they were so ill on going they usually died. So to me a hospital was a place where you went to die. The Sisters were good to me, so it went okay. After two years 1 was sent to Louisville to get my degree. I lived at St. Joseph Infirmary and attended classes at Nazareth College. When living at St. Joseph Infirmary I used to borrow the interns' white pants, put a red stripe down the sides and make black hats for a group of Sisters and we would do the March of the Tin Soldiers and other entertainment for them, which they loved, including good music. The Sisters used to say, "When you have your anniversary we will put on a big celebration for you, but wasn't I moved one month before this date and my new superior wouldn't let them do anything--maybe put an extra pea in the soup and that was it. I had contracted TB from taking trays into Sisters who were dying of "galloping consumption with only a mentally retarded Sister caring for them. Sister took trays into very ill ones, but if she wasn't there she told me not to pick up anything. We washed contaminated dishes in the same water as the other dishes. I wasn't a nurse, but I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about it. One day at St. Joseph Infirmary a priest friend was walking down the hall with the superior and myself and he heard my coughing He said to her, "This young Sister isn't well. Why don't you have a doctor see her?" Her reply was, "She has been coughing ever since she's been here. There's nothing wrong with her." So she refused me an x-ray. Soon after that Sister Bridget, superintendent of nurses, came to me and told me to have my temperature taken every afternoon at the pharmacy or at one of the nurses' desks, which I did. It was 102 degrees each afternoon. She sent me in to be x-rayed. I was working in the x-ray room then since I wasn't well and was taken out of the laboratory. When 1 was put there Dr. Martin told them I should be out in the country in sunshine and fresh air and not exposed to x-rays. They paid no attention to him. So on the day of my x-ray I'm sitting there taking dictation. When Dr. Martin saw the x-ray he ran out into the hall and brought in other doctors to look at this terrible chest x-ray. He asked, "Whose is this?" I replied, "Some young Sister came in for an x-ray." I wasn't going to tell him it was mine, when I was working in there. Of course I was put to bed immediately on 3 East where the Sister in charge said, "You don't belong up here," and I told her I didn't want to be there any more than she wanted me. I was moved to another floor and when put to bed, I was told 1 would live one month. The older Sisters would say, "They said that young Sister (I was 25 years old) is not going to make it," so they would all file by my bed like I was already laid out in the coffin. They had collapsed my lung to gave it rest. They were giving me sulfanilamide, but I asked for sulfapyridine, since I had taken it when I had pneumonia earlier, and I began to improve. After getting able to work Sister Clare Mandlehr asked me to work with her in the School of Nursing. For awhile I had presided at the front desk. Two seminarians stopped by one day and said they needed Sisters in Belize. "If you ask the Mother General, 1 bet she will send some," I said. They did and that is how we SCNs got to Belize. While I was presiding, Thomas Merton was a patient, but you only saw him going from his room to the church. In contrast Father Raymond informed all his friends when he was admitted, so mobs of people came and cluttered up the hall, so our superior had to straighten that out. While working in the School of Nursing I interviewed prospective nurses. One day I recall asking this young lady why she wanted to be a nurse. Her reply, "I want to marry a doctor." She became a good nurse and she married her doctor. At St. Joseph Infirmary two Irish Sisters, Mary Corinne and Mary De Lillis went through the kitchen to get the elevator to the chapel. One day we had corned beef and cabbage for dinner and Sister Mary Corinne filled her big pocket with it. Very soon she fell and was taken to the emergency room. Her big pocket was hanging down and Sister Mary De Lillis said, "That's her prayer book." Very soon the prayer book began to leaking and the corned beef and cabbage made itself known. The School of Nursing was ready for evaluation, and since I wasn't a nurse I told them I'd get out. I was sent to Braintree, Massachusetts to Archbishop Williams' co-ed high school. A friend I had grown up with, Sister Margaret Maginnis, said, 'Td tell then I can't do it." I'll do nothing of the kind," I replied. I took over a sophomore classroom and loved it. I saw the ocean for the first time in my life. The boys would tease me about "running around the hills of Kentucky barefooted looking for the stills." One day in the local paper appeared big headlines: "Still Discovered between Hyde Park and Milton," two fancy neighborhoods. I held the paper up and said, "At least we hid our stills in the hills." They were so sheepish I never heard any more from them. After Braintree I went to Sacred Heart in Memphis, Tennessee. Biology was my main subject. Patsy Murphy won the state science fair award with her work: "Effects of cancer cells on mice." Patsy even came in on Christmas day and worked on the experiment. All expenses were paid for Patsy and my trip to Seattle, Washington to attend the National Science Fair. It happened to be the year of the World's Fair in Seattle, so we saw the Eye of the Needle memorial, which is still there. Tile Christian Brothers' student in Memphis won tile contest for the boys, so the public schools were furious that we had outdone them. After being elected "Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year," I applied for Science Fair grants. I received them for seven summers in different places. I went to Fordham in New York, Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (had 2 there), Southwestern in Memphis, and two others. In Milwaukee we went out on big House Boats at night, returning at midnight. One of the Christian Brothers took me out in his speed boat--really fun days. 1 left teaching and worked for the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, in Social Justice. I attended meetings with legislators and when I got up to speak, I said I represented the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, so they all listened. I occupied an office in an Episcopal building across from the Capitol. One day l was asked to address a Jewish Assembly by a Methodist. After the speech he said I bet you're the first Sister to address this group. In fact he said, "You are the first Catholic to do this." I quit this work soon because the men were indifferent about their work, coming late or not showing at all. I started running the Religious Education program in a parish in Richmond, Virginia. Soon after a school mate from Morganfield called and wanted me to go abroad with her. I told her I had a job, but when I told the pastor, he said, "Oh, go by all means, you may never have such a chance again." So off I went to the Holy Land, Rome, Lourdes, and Fatima. Seeing Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and their pretty churches was very rewarding. Another time l chaperoned students to Europe for six weeks. We covered London (even Stonehenge), Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Amsterdam, and I went to the Swiss Alps, as the chaperons got a three day holiday. We went to the top of the Stilthorn, the highest peak after the Matterhorn, which we could see in the distance. On leaving the group, I took a train to the mountains, so I could see the sights. There were six in our car and five spoke English, so they helped me enjoy the scenery. We were riding along the Rhine River and I saw much beauty there. When in Amsterdam I saw the room where Anne Frank was confined. When I left the Swiss Alps I was to meet my group in Paris. On the way we stopped for a meal and the menus were in French and all the help spoke French. Since I knew no French, I went to the kitchen and pointed to the food in the pots I wanted. I had a nice meal and went on my way to Paris. We returned to the good old USA after the six weeks. I continued my work. From 197% 1989 1 worked in a large parish in West Palm Beach, Florida. I had 440 in my Parish Religious Education Program and Youth Group. I took the Youth Group to the mountains in the summer and to a local retreat center in the winter. We had good teachers because I brought in professionals to work with them. Some people took their children out of the parish school and put them in the public school so they could attend our Sunday morning classes. The parish school had a Jewish teacher and a non-Catholic teaching second grade. After two classes on Sunday morning and 12:00 o'clock Mass, l grabbed some food and went to the beach where I stretched out on my beach chair for the afternoon. In 1989 1 decided to return to Kentucky before they forgot they had me. I went to Nazareth for a short time; then 1 moved to Morrison Hall on South Fourth Street ill Louisville and worked in the alumni office at Spalding University. ]'here were fourteen Sisters on the third floor of Morrison Hall, and gradually they began to move out so there were five of us left and we were told to move because they couldn't afford to pay rent for a small group Four of us moved to Nazareth and one to Chapel House on Fifth Street. There was no room in the apartments on Newburg Road for us. My first room at Nazareth had one window, which faced the wall of the church. I could peek out tile side and see a little green grass. 1 soon got into a better room and when Carrico Hall was finished I was the first to move in there into room 121 on the East side where I can see the fields and the sunrise--lovely. That move was in December 1999. I am very happy here and we even have a small chapel on the first floor. Each floor has a large recreation room where some of us watch news at night and a few stay for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, which we love. Across from the recreation room is a kitchenette with refrigerator, stove, microwave, and two tables and chairs where some fix their own meals and eat and some also play cards there. I get to Louisville whenever I want to go. I am still a member of Parish Life Committee at the Cathedral of the Assumption, so I participate in activities there and receive the copy of tile sermon each Sunday and Holy Day and get the newsletter monthly. I am, also, a member of the Alumni Board at Spalding University and we are very active. I received recently a beautiful bouquet for my birthday from Spalding University, signed by Dr. Oates, Jeff Ashley, and five others oil the staff. Each June Dr. Oates has a dinner at his house with a tent over the patio. The Boards of Trustees, Overseers, and Alumni all attend this--great! On February 24, 2002, Mark Raque with whom I had worked at Spalding and his wife and three children came for 10:30 Mass, dinner and a nice visit. Jeff Ashley from Spalding and his family are coming oil March 10, 2002. It is nice to be remembered Jeff came before Christmas and brought me a lovely white poinsettia. I give it TLC along with six African violets, which bloom always. My life at Nazareth is perfect.

  
  

• Sources

  [S839] Anastasia Gough from Tom Cambron.FTW. Date of Import: 16 Jul 2005