Sister Mary Jeanne was: creative, analytical, energetic, hardworking, efficient, brilliant, giving 100%, skillfully juggling whatever came her way, seemingly without effort. She reached out, made friends, and remained loyal to them for life. In any discussion, if there was an adversarial position, she could be counted on to defend it, even with tenacity. She was determined, yielding only when she could foresee the possibility of a better outcome. She brought the same determination to her religious 
observance, to which she was unremittingly faithful.
Shirley Girshefski and her younger sister, Jeanne, began their education at rural Dutchtown (Louisiana) public schools where their mother 
taught. Shirley would sleep until her mother and sister had left for school, and when she heard the five-minute bell, scoot under their fence to reach the school just in time.
Shirley was a born 
leader, and a born athlete. (See account by Bill Oberhelman.) As an undergraduate at Louisiana State University, she joined the Newman Club, serving four years with unswerving commitment. She volunteered as secretary to the chaplain, Father 
Robert Tracy, who later became the first Bishop of Baton Rouge. Typically, she remained friends with him until his death, as she did through the years with her Newman friends in the Catholic student community at LSU, and virtually every group she joined.
In her 1990 sabbatical program, "Ministry to Ministers," in San Antonio, TX (Sister Jeanne in her own words, 1990) she made friends with a younger priest who was a Redemptorist missionary in Brazil. After several years of letters and occasional phone calls, she found her way to the foreign mission, where the priest-friend was hard at work with his flock. She did not speak the language, but she may have "never met a stranger."
In 
1947, after completing her undergraduate degree, Shirley began teaching Physical Education, and coaching at three Catholic high schools in New Orleans. She held a life certificate in Louisiana for Health and P.E., General Science, English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Administration and Supervision. In summers she traveled to Central America to play basketball in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. She was competitive, and born to win. In that third summer 
after college, she knew the time had come to pursue her vocation to convent life. She applied to the Dominican Sisters, whom she had met in summer Religious Education. She missed the entrance deadline to join her group, because their team was winning, and she couldn't leave, but the sisters received her when she arrived. Shirley put her hand to the plow and never looked back. As a religious sister she took the name Mary Jeanne. Neither her younger sister, Jeanne Theresa, nor their father, John Girshefski, minded in the least. Jeanne's five children grew up just calling their aunt "Sister."
Her father, John had been successful in merchandising at Maison Blanche in New Orleans, the father of three daughters. Four years after the death of his first wife, he married Rosetta Fisher, a dedicated educator, who became the mother of Shirley Mae and Jeanne Theresa. John moved the family back to Dutchtown to care for his father, after his own mother died. He worked as a storekeeper, and later became an executive for the American Red Cross.
Sister Mary Jeanne thrived on finding new worlds to conquer. As a lifelong educator, she served as elementary and secondary school principal. She earned her doctorate in education, and became dean of education at St. Mary's Dominican College. In 1976 she accepted an appointment to the Special Education Division in Louisiana State Department of Education. In 1983 she became administrator at Sophie Gumbel Guild, where she managed STRIVE Center, which began in 1967 as a work program for 14 students: (STRIVE , in 1967: "Sewing, Training for Retarded Individuals in Vocational Enterprises.") In 1990 Sister Mary Jeanne began expanding the entire operation, opening Miller Manor, a model group home for six adult women in the program, and Miller Action Center, an innovative recreational program for the mentally handicapped.
She was a gifted manager, which endeared her to her board at STRIVE, Inc., many of whom became her loyal friends for life. In her style, she more resembled the director of a large orchestra, than a CEO. Her years of working in Special Education for the state netted her valuable contacts when she became director at STRIVE . Her clients were always the beneficiaries; their parents and guardians were profoundly grateful.
In an interview for Mature Times, October 1992, she acknowledged among her significant accomplishments on a personal level, "going through the dying process with a godson with lung cancer." Her inner well of tenderness and compassion emerged from that experience. Those who knew her best were not surprised. These heretofore hidden qualities served her in her ministry to the handicapped, to developmentally disabled adults, and to their family members.
Sister Mary Jeanne received too many awards and honors to enumerate here. She liked the status of "Golden Tiger" conferred by the LSU Alumni Association on in 1997. Among the testimonials when she died was a heartfelt word of gratitude from Dominican Volunteers USA, a group Sister Mary Jeanne helped to launch in 2001. See www.dvusa.org.
When she herself was overtaken by cancer, she courageously did all that might be done, and when all measures failed, calmly and gracefully prepared for the final curtain that was all that remained between her and her eternal reward. Her devotion to her family, especially her younger sister's five gifted adult children, was manifest in the truly Dominican funeral services, celebrating death as the portal to eternal life. Each nephew and niece, among many other friends and co-workers, gave witness to the strong bond that was deeper than any friendship, and to the joyful part she played in their lives.
Sister Mary Jeanne, with her photographic memory for names and numbers, and her annual Christmas card list of thousands, which she hand wrote with messages inside, was certainly unique. Her softest spot may have been for the miniature schnauzer, Annie, that she successfully introduced to the local community, after winning the consent of each of six sisters at their residence, Sacred Heart Hall.
Jeanne had her rough edges, as we all have. She was one of a kind, irreplaceable, and will be missed by many, for a very long time. She was a special child of God, surely as dear to her God as the "special children" she served with all her heart. May she rest in peace, in the embrace of God, her Redeemer, and her lifelong Friend.
