Oh, It’s On for the Class of 1950

What Sister Geneal Kramer, OP ’50 remembers most about her days at Saint Mary College in the late 1940s was the level of academic rigor, the propriety, and the “Smoker”, a room in the basement of Le Mans where Saint Mary’s women could smoke cigars and play cards with men from Notre Dame. The Smoker, she says, was also the room where the same students held post-game football victory dances almost every weekend. 

 

As Sister Geneal, age 96, reminisced recently about her years at Saint Mary’s, plans are being made for her upcoming 75th Class Reunion, May 29 – June 1. Though Geneal will be unable to attend, her friend and fellow Class of 1950 alumna Anne Reynolds Pyron, also 96, will be on campus to celebrate.

 

Both women remember their time at Saint Mary’s as years of creating community, discovery, and study. They were one of the last classes to have Sister Madeleva Wolff, CSC as their College president. Both remember her as an educator who believed in truth and beauty as pathways to the divine. She would dine with small groups of seniors throughout their last year at Saint Mary’s. At these meals, she talked with them about their goals, their career paths, poetry, and the world beyond campus.

 

As an aside, Sister Madeleva also thought ladies should be the picture of propriety when they left campus, Anne remembers. This meant they had to wear a skirt, hose, heels, a hat, and gloves. “It was strict, but it was normal back then,” Anne said. Sister Geneal remembers having her own agenda. “There was a bunch of fun going on off campus, so sometimes we'd put a pair of jeans on under the skirt, and take another pair of shoes with us so we could do something else besides be pretty,” she laughed, thinking about the baseball games and hikes in the woods that ensued.
 

During a recent interview, Anne recalled the ebb and flow of a typical mid-century day at the College. “We’d get up in the morning, go to Mass and have breakfast. We'd have our classes and lunch,” she said. “Then we'd have afternoons for study and study and study.” And study she did. A trailblazer, Anne was one of only six graduates in the Department of Chemistry in 1950, a time when women were even more woefully underrepresented in STEM fields. She minored in mathematics.

 

Following her graduation, Anne moved home to Memphis and began work as a chemist for the Plough Corporation for the next 14 years. There, she worked to develop popular mid-century brands like Saint Joseph’s Children’s Aspirin and Digel, a remedy for indigestion; and brands still on the market today, like Coppertone.

 

In 1954, Anne wed her husband Ira Pyron. They were married for 62 years until he passed away in 2016.

 

Sister Geneal, who hails from Columbus, Ohio, earned her bachelor’s degree in Social Science, which she notes then was a combination of Political Science, Sociology, and History. She also minored in Education, since her father wanted her to have a way to earn a living.

 

Meeting Sister Madeleva, with her worldliness and her intellect, has had a lasting impact on Geneal. “She really was an outstanding thinker. When we were seniors, we got to sit at her table once a week,” she said. “Those discussions were just marvelous openings out to a broader world, and we could ask her questions about her life and things that she did. It was just a great, great experience.”

 

It was through Sister Madeleva that Sister Geneal met Dorothy Day, journalist, activist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. A convert to Catholicism, Day spent her life tirelessly fighting for the dignity of the poor and marginalized. Day was one of the many intellectuals in Sister Madeleva’s orbit who visited campus, making an impression on the young student.

 

Following her graduation, Geneal moved to Cincinnati and taught at several Catholic schools while earning her master’s degree in Psychology from Xavier University. “I wanted to be a school psychologist. I didn't want to keep teaching. I didn't enjoy teaching that much,” she said.

 

Geneal’s journey to religious life, much like Day before her, was born of activism. “Another woman and I decided to organize the Catholic lay teachers, because we felt we weren't treated very well,” she explained. “We didn't go to the teachers' meetings because they had them in the convent, and we weren't allowed in the convent. At other times, we weren't given what we were promised in terms of classes and books.”

 

It was during these organizational meetings with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati that she met the Sisters of Mary of Reparatrix, an order from Strasbourg, France. She began working with them to plan retreats within the Archdiocese. “I was really attracted to this way of life, to their ministry, to giving retreats and spiritual direction because I saw that as an extension of my psychology studies,” Geneal said.

 

She was in Rome in 1962 preparing for her final vows when Vatican II began. It changed the trajectory of the Catholic Church and Geneal’s own life as well. “For me, it was a new church,” she said. As the 1960s progressed and social and political upheaval grew, so did her desire to be more involved in social justice and spiritual growth. After 14 years with the Sisters of Mary of Reparatrix, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Adrian, Michigan, which she felt was more aligned with her need to remain engaged in a changing world. She ministered in New Mexico and South Africa before returning to Michigan in 2022, where she continues to lead retreats and offer spiritual direction.

 

Both Anne and Sister Geneal return to their alma mater often, usually for Reunion. Anne became a retreat aficionado herself in the mid-’90s, when she attended her first Elderhostel—enriching experiences for senior citizens—now known as Road Scholar, in the form of a retreat. It was at Saint Mary’s College, and it was also the first Elderhostel they hosted. Since then, she’s attended 24 more. “Most of the Elderhostels were at colleges, and we enjoyed them. We learned a lot too,” Anne said.

 

Both women attended Reunion in 2022 and enjoyed the fellowship and continued opportunities to learn new things through the programming offered at Reunion. “I look forward to the sessions, and meeting a lot of people. Hearing their experiences was really a great experience for me,” Geneal said. 

 

Says Anne: “It’s just a great time to see my old friends and to see the school again and see what changes have been made. A lot of the buildings have been built over the years since I graduated, and so it's just nice to come back and just think of school again.”

 

May 28, 2025