At Dominican High School, she was affectionately called "Brou." Born in Welsh, Louisiana, she was the sixth of eight: five girls and three boys. Their father, Felicien Brou, was from Wallace; their mother, Helene Fontaine, came from France. The pastor of Holy Rosary, Taft, in 1946 called them "one of our best Catholic families." Ruth began secondary level at Hahnville High, and after two years, transferred to Dominican in New Orleans, where she was a resident in Founders Hall. She was one of four (of 84) of the Class of '46 to enter Rosaryville upon graduation to become a Dominican sister. Others followed, including the writer of this memorial. In January 1948, she professed vows as Sister Mary Jane Frances, O.P. Her sister Marguerite had made profession in 1945.

Sr. M. Jane Frances began teaching first grade in St. Peter's in Reserve, Louisiana, only months after her nineteenth birthday. The following year, she was missioned to St. Agnes, Baton Rouge teaching fifth grade. Her superior and principal said she had "no complaints about her schoolwork." She added that, "Her religious duties are done well; however she isn't over-pious." (These were times when external piety was held in high esteem.) No one could have denied that she was deeply good. 

The next year, at St. John the Baptist she was given combined grades 1 and 2, a new challenge. She won the heart of no-nonsense Sr. M. Matthew, who wrote of her: "Sister has a genuine aptitude for teaching. She keeps fine order in ranks, has an attractive classroom, and seems always pleasant. In the community she acts as if she were with us all her life . . . May the Lord send us a few more like her!" (But there were no more like her!) 

Our young sister went on to St. Anthony of Padua in New Orleans, where Sr. Mary Carmel judged she was "certainly a lady, obedient, prayerful, and in all, a very good religious. . . As a teacher, Sister is very capable in handling fifty-one Fifth Grade boys." The next two years she went to St. Leo's, teaching first grade, and then seventh; she settled in the upper grades: In 1956, seventh grade at St. Matthias (New Orleans), and then to St. Joseph, Paulina, where she aptly handled seventh and eighth combined. Meanwhile, she was working toward her degree from St. Mary's Dominican College on Saturdays and in summers, as was then the "done thing," finishing in 1957. After ten years of annual turnovers, she settled into St. Agnes for five-years, teaching and doing graduate work at Louisiana State University.

In 1962, she finished her M.Ed. in school administration and library science. At graduation we see her surrounded by other young teachers, who clearly held her dear. The next year she was named principal and superior in St. Peter's School, Reserve. After two years, she made the rounds of the rural missions; in 1968 she taught sixth grade in an impoverished public school in Lizana, Mississippi, where the Dominican sisters had been welcomed in 1946. 

Jane Frances was intensely present to the moment and keenly observant, seeing and hearing more than ordinary mortals, and remembering in detail. Sisters Rose Bowen and Betty Doskey, her novitiate companions, attested to this gift, and others confirmed it. In one photo she is at a table with a small child, her face a study in concentration. In others she is in a group, and the group seems to have become an instant community. Sister Delia McDonald tells of arriving early and waiting with others for a Mardi Gras parade: Janie said, "Let's not waste this time; we could be singing!" Her repertoire was extensive (she grew up listening to songs on the radio), and it expanded with time. They sang each year at Mardi Gras, and it never grew old.

When Janie began with the disease that was to sap her life and living, robbing her of so many of her gifts, still she never lost her gift for music. An earlier photo shows her in La Place, near Reserve on the Mississippi River road, silhouetted below a stage filled with 92 children ready to sing. Her hands have complete control. In her final days when her sisters sang the Salve Regina, an old Dominican tradition, she seemed surely to hear, and to know. 

She was deeply loyal and loving, and irresistibly lovable to the end. Sister Carmelite Zibilich said Janie had a gift of joy, peace and patience, and prayed that she would obtain those gifts for us all.