Loretta Lorna Keller
October 16, 1913 - July 30, 2002
"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs." Matthew, 19:14
Loretta Keller was the third of four children of Fernand A. and Dora Ory Keller; both parents came from "the River Road." She was born in Garyville on the Mississippi River. She had two older sisters, Ethel and Carmen, and a younger brother, F. A. Jr, all now deceased. Her siblings would provide her with nieces and nephews who soon became devoted to their "Aunt Ta," and she to them.
The Keller family moved to New Orleans where her father practiced dentistry. Loretta was enrolled at St. Mary's Dominican where her contemporaries remember her as always the good friend, always ready for fun. She walked from Octavia Street with Yvonne Redmann (later Sr. M. Joan), saving five cents carfare each. She
graduated high school in 1932, and entered with the largest contingent of postulants in the history of St. Mary's Congregation. Among them was her close friend, Alice Russell, now the sole survivor of the "famous fourteen."
Sister Mary Bernadette was first missioned to St. Anthony of Padua in New Orleans in 1934. One June day the following summer Mother Mary Catherine told her at 1p.m. to "get ready" to catch the 5 p.m. train. At Mater Dolorosa in Independence, a rural, Italian, largely farming community, school started in early July and ended in March so the children could help with the strawberry crop. Years later Sister recalled that 98 children had registered for kindergarten, but there were only 60 kindergarten desks in the little school. The pastor, Fr. Vitalis Fueyo, op, (Holy Rosary Province- Rosaryville), helped her pare the total down to 60 by canceling all below the age of 5.5.
Sr. M. Beatrice, another young nun assigned to Independence, although musically gifted was not robust enough to pump the pedals on the church organ, so Sr. M. Bernadette would do the footwork while Sr. M. Beatrice expertly fingered the keys. Sr. M. Bernadette maintained to nearly the end of her long life that it was she who "played" that organ. Together they provided accompaniment for the children's Mass and the weekly novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Sr. Mary Teresa recalls that Sr. Mary Bernadette was early nicknamed "Bon-bon" because she was unfailingly sweet and good. Sr. Mary Germaine remembers that they just called her "Bon" for the same reason. She was always ready with a smile, or a smile about to break open, as if she had an inner, secret happiness.
Her niece, Sr. Libby Dahlstrom, O. Carm., says they called her "Go-go Girl" because she was always ready to go anywhere, any time. Libby also saw her always busy with her hands, making things for children.
Children were indeed her first love, the center and focus of her life's work. She taught them to love Jesus and to love one another, by quietly and steadfastly loving each one of them with all her great heart.
In fifty-two years of teaching, Sr. Mary Bernadette also made the rounds teaching in Dominican parochial schools in Hammond, Reserve, Baton Rouge, Paulina, Cottonport, Houma, Harvey, and in New Orleans: St. Leo's and St. John the Baptist. When duty called her to serve as principal and superior she managed to teach on the side. If the children she prepared for First Holy Communion were lined up in procession, surely the line would be miles long. With her dedication, she served five more years at Place Dubourg with senior citizens before retiring to the Motherhouse to rest. Many were touched at the song she chose for her funeral, the traditional "O Lord, I am not worthy..." No one doubted her Lord would speak to her the "words of comfort" gently enfolding her spirit forever.
