Flashes Won Team Championship at MAIS Overall State Swim Meet

St. Aloysius swimmers Adam Eckstein and Tommy Martin, center, and their teammates react to the announcement that the Flashes won the team championship at the MAIS Overall State Swim Meet Wednesday in Flowood. It’s the first state championship for St. Al since it joined the MAIS In 2015, and also the first time in the meet’s 46-year history that a team other than Jackson Prep has won. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

For each of the past 45 years, the MAIS Overall State Swim Meet ended the same way.

The PA announcer would list the scores, several teams would politely applaud upon hearing their names, and the championship celebration would begin once Jackson Prep’s name came over the speaker.

This year was no different — the names, polite applause, and wild celebration when Jackson Prep was called out. The only change was there was still one more school on the list when it happened.

St. Aloysius won 15 individual state championships and, at long last, ended a 4 ½-decade long dynasty by claiming the team title Wednesday at the 2019 MAIS Overall meet. It’s the first time since swimming became a championship sport in the MAIS in 1973 that Jackson Prep has not won the title.

St. Al totaled 286 points, and Jackson Prep had 266. Madison-Ridgeland Academy was third, with 215.

“It was unbelievable. We’ve been trying so hard and waiting so long. I can’t really believe that we actually did it. Prep hasn’t lost since the MAIS has been in existence, so it was great to punch one through,” said St. Al senior Adam Eckstein, who won the state title in the 50-yard backstroke as well as two relays. “We get to be in the record books now as champions, and not just the boys (champions). We get to win.”

St. Al joined the MAIS in 2015 and immediately became a challenger to Jackson Prep’s reign. That year, the Flashes lost 18 points when a winning relay team was disqualified and lost by 13 in the final standings.

St. Al finished as the runner-up each of the past four years and its boys unofficially won the championship last year. At the state meet, the scores for boys and girls teams — as well as for the Grades 7-9 and 10-12 divisions — are combined for one total team score, and Prep retained despite its boys’ team being outscored by St. Al’s boys.

The near misses made Wednesday’s breakthrough even sweeter.

“We’ve been so close for, like, six years now. When we finally did it, it makes it even more surreal,” Eckstein said.

St. Al’s victory was powered by its steady stream of first-place finishes. The boys’ team won nine gold medals and the girls got six.

Eckstein took first in the 50-yard backstroke, while his fellow senior Tommy Martin won the 50 breaststroke and 100 freestyle. They teamed up with Spencer Carroll and Layne Sparks to win the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays, as well.

The medley relay finished with a time of 1:47.62, just three-hundredths of a second off the state record St. Al set last year. It was also part of a 1-2 punch that helped the Flashes lock down the team championship. After the boys’ medley relay won its race, the girls relay of Leah Larson, Ann Elizabeth Farthing, Chandler Tucker and Samantha Graves finished first to close out the meet.

“It was really good. We came together as a team. We had three or four state championship relays, so that’s always nice to see. Every time you would see one of us racing, the whole team was behind the blocks. As a team, I think we performed really well,” Eckstein said.

Carroll also finished third in the 100 freestyle, and Sparks was third in the 50 freestyle.

In the Grades 7-9 division, Jon Daniel Busby won the 100-yard individual medley and the 50 breaststroke. Beau Harris was first in the 50 backstroke and second in the 50 freestyle.

On the girls’ side, Larson took gold in the 50 backstroke and 50 butterfly, as well as in the medley relay. Farthing won the 50 breaststroke, while Graves earned a second-place finish in the 100 freestyle.

Emily Cook won two sprint championships in the Grades 7-9 division, in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

“They’re all best times. I’m pretty proud,” said Larson, a sophomore who now has five individual state titles to her credit. “It was a great day. Being on a high school team is different than being on a city team because you’re all going toward a common goal instead of everybody being out for themselves.”

Winning the state meet also was a memorable way for the seniors Eckstein and Martin to finish their high school careers. They were both on the medley relay team that set the state record in 2018, and each has won nine individual or relay state championships in the past five years.

Considering Harris, Busby, Sparks and Carroll are all underclassmen who will be returning for several more years, Eckstein said he’s both proud of what he and Martin accomplished and excited for what the others might do after they’re gone. He hinted it could even be the start of a new dynasty.

“Even though this is our last year, it’s not the last year for St. Al. Beau is faster than I was in seventh grade. We have a lot of great talent, so they’ll be good for years,” Eckstein said. “We definitely have something to be proud of. We came in our first year and got second by, like, six points. Prep has never lost so we’ve really challenged them and we’ve always gotten at least second. Our boys team won last year. We got rings and everything. We’ve each accumulated a bunch of individual titles so it’s a good feeling. I feel like we’ve left a good legacy.”

Sister Mary Fatima Dies

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Sister Fatima Starks.

Sister Fatima gave 30+ years of service to Vicksburg Catholic School and our community.

She will be deeply missed by all that were blessed to have had the opportunity to know her.

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am sure that neither death nor life... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord".

Obituary for Sister Mary Fatima Starks

Long-time resident of Vicksburg, Sister Mary Fatima Starks, died Wednesday, September 18, 2019, in Mobile, Alabama. A Sister of Mercy for 72 years, she was 90 years old.

Sister Fatima ministered in education, as a teacher and principal at schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Of her 60 years in active ministry, all but 3 years were spent serving the people of Mississippi. Most recently, before moving in 2016 to Convent of Mercy in Mobile, she served as a volunteer at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The Funeral Mass for Sister will be celebrated Monday, September 23, 2019 at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Mobile. Burial will take place at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at Noon.

Riles Funeral Home in charge of local services.

My Computer Crashed!

Classmates:  Will be going downtown to 

Senior Center to post until I can get another computer/laptop!  :(  Posting from my Kindle Fire.

Reverend Alfred Camp Dies

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Reverend Alfred Camp this morning, September 1st. Please keep his family in your prayers.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

The memorial service for Fr. Camp will be at Noon on Wednesday, September 11th in St. Mary Basilica in Natchez, MS. Fr. Camp personally requested the Basilica before his passing. A wonderful and loving man Fr. Camp will be deeply missed by all that were blessed to have had the opportunity to know him.

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am sure that neither death nor life... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord"......

Jackie & Fur Baby

Love this recent picture of Jackie Melsheimer Doiron with her precious dog, Henry.  What a beautiful picture!  

End Of An Era ~ Sisters Of Mercy

Sister Patricia Parker and Sister Robyn Huster look over past clippings and photographs at their home in Vicksburg.  The two Religious Sisters of Mercy will soon be moving to their religious order's retirement home in St. Louis.

A piece of Vicksburg’s cornerstone will fall to the history books next month when the last resident members of the Religious Sisters of Mercy leave the city.

Sister Patricia Parker, 85, and Sister Robyn Huser, 76, have called Vicksburg home for more than 50 years. They will move to their religious order’s retirement home in St. Louis, Mo., in August, ending a 159-year era of the sisters being leaders in health care and education in the city, Warren County and surrounding areas.

It’s time to go – I had sworn I’d never leave, but we have to think about our health issues,” Sister Patricia said. “I found out a couple of months ago that I have a mild heart condition, and I know it would not be good to just fall out some day and leave Sister Robyn to try to deal with it.

”In 1988, Sister Robyn suffered a massive heart attack and was without oxygen for about 25 minutes. Sister Robyn’s survival and recovery, which included “spending more than a year learning to walk again,” was described as nothing short of a miracle, but she continues to need help with everyday chores, Sister Patricia said.

“We’ve had a ministry here in Vicksburg, and a lot of people have given us a lot of money, and we’ve been able to help a lot of people,” she said. “We hate to leave here. I just love it, but it’s time.”

A reception to honor the sisters will be from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, at the parish hall of St. Michael Catholic Church.

Throughout their time in Vicksburg and several years in Jackson, Sisters Patricia and Robyn have followed their order’s vows of service to the poor, sick and uneducated.

Just two months ago, during National Nurses Week, the two were honored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing. They were awarded a plaque and recognized for their roles in establishing the Mercy Delta Express, a traveling clinic staffed by medically trained Sisters of Mercy, volunteers and UMMC nursing students.T

The sisters said the bus was a way to help train nurses and, more importantly, to help those impoverished people whose plights were discussed in the federal government’s Delta Commission Report of 1990.

The delivery of on-site health care began in Issaquena and Sharkey counties, the two Delta counties just north of Vicksburg and Warren County. The continuing result of that work today offers health care in Cary, Mayersville, Rolling Fork and Anguilla.

We’d park in corn fields, and people would come to get free medical care,” Sister Patricia said. “We had nurses from Vicksburg, all volunteers, who went with us to help these poor people. We gave immunizations to the children, and we treated a lot of the parents.”

At the May ceremony in Jackson, Sister Robyn told Mississippi Catholic, the newspaper for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, she remains amazed at the impact of one simple idea, such as the medical bus.T

"It’s kind of an awesome thing,” she said.

Yet, moving into uncharted territory was nothing new for this order of religious sisters.

Six members of the Sisters of Mercy came to Vicksburg from Baltimore, Md., in 1860. Their works began with the founding of St. Catherine’s School, which later became St. Francis Xavier Academy. After opening and operating a school where not even one public school existed, the “teaching sisters” stayed in the city and operated St. Francis and later St. Aloysius High School until 1999, when most of them moved to a retirement home near New Orleans.

 As “hospital sisters,” Sister Robyn, a native of Lubbock, Texas, served as a registered nurse, director of nursing and hospital vice president; and Sister Patricia, a native of New Orleans who grew up in Biloxi, served as a registered nurse and supervisor of the operating room. Both left Vicksburg in the mid-’80's to begin their ministry of helping the chronically mentally ill in Jackson.

“We went into the personal care homes, we found people on the streets, we set up a clinic across from Stew-pot Ministries,” Sister Patricia explained. “Some of these people were in the worst conditions you can imagine. But it was the best time of my life.

“Life is worthwhile when you can contribute some happiness to these poor people,” she said. “It was the joy of doing God’s work.”

Josesph R. Kopacz, a native of Pennsylvania and the bishop of the Catholic diocese that includes Vicksburg, is familiar with the Sisters of Mercy in Mississippi and his home state.

“These two sisters represent what is so remarkable about the Sisters of Mercy,” he said. “They not only do their work with their ministries — health care, education and tending to the needy — they become involved personally with those people.

“Even after they’ve left a place, they are remembered for all their good, their prayers, their dedication and sometimes just consoling those who need it,” he said.

"It is amazing what the sisters have done in Vicksburg and throughout Mississippi since 1860,” he said. “They have spent a lifetime preparing people for heaven.”

A member of the Sisters of Mercy who has spent years documenting the works of the religious order is Sister Paulinus Oakes, a Vicksburg native who at 87 is “still doing a little outreach” from her retirement village in St. Louis, where Sisters Robyn and Patricia will take up residence.

“I am so glad they are coming up to St. Louis,” said Sister Paulinus, who wrote and published “Angels of Mercy” and “The Tapestry of Mercy,” both historical accounts of the order in Mississippi and the United States.

“I was so glad to be a part of the Vicksburg ministry,” Sister Paulinus said. She is a graduate of St. Francis, a former principal at her Alma mater, a former theology teacher at St. Aloysius and a pastoral care servant attached to Mercy Regional Medical Center.

The Rev. P.J. Curley, pastor emeritus of St. Michael Catholic Church and the longest-serving priest in Vicksburg, said he has been impressed by the two sisters since he met them.

“I admire their dedication and commitment to the care of the sick and the needy across Mississippi,” Curley said. “I’ve always known the Mercy Sisters as educators, but I had no idea of the extent of their involvement in the well-being of the whole community.

“Their caring nature and positive spirit have been inspirational to me,” he said. “We will miss them, and they will be in my prayers.”

Shirley Farish of Vicksburg is a retired registered nurse who spent 45 years at Mercy Hospital and Mercy Regional Medical Center, 25 of those as nursing supervisor in the emergency room.

“That was before we had doctors in the E.R.,” she said. “If we needed one, we had to get a doctor from University (Medical Center in Jackson).

“I was in nursing school when Patricia came to Vicksburg, so I worked with her for 45 years,” Farish said. “I saw what the sisters did. I saw how Patricia and Robyn had a ministry of helping the needy. They were retired by then, but those people who needed them knew how to find them.”

The time at Mercy Hospital and with the sisters “were glorious years,” she said.

The Sisters of Mercy began their health-care ministry during the Civil War when they tended Union and Confederate soldiers. The presidents of both sides praised the sisters.

“I can never forget your kindness to the sick and wounded during our darkest days,” Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, said after the war, according to Gordon Cotton, longtime curator of the Old Court House Museum, historian and author who has written about many of the people living in Vicksburg during the Union siege of the city.

At another time, Davis cited his “personal gratitude and respect for every member of your noble order,” Cotton said.

On the opposite side, President Abraham Lincoln referred to the sisters as “… the most efficient … veritable angels of mercy.”

Over the years since the Civil War, the nuns have cared for the sick during a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870's, a polio outbreak in the 1940's and the injured after a tornado hit the city in 1953, killing 38 people and injuring hundreds.

In 1943, the sisters took over Vicksburg’s Street Hospital and nursing school, which had been operated since 1901 by sibling physicians. Through the next 20 years, the sisters began operations of Mercy Hospital, later Mercy Regional Medical Center, and Mercy School of Nursing. The school educated and trained nurses for the entire state of Mississippi and much of the Southeast until establishing a three-year degree program with the University of Southern Mississippi and later a two-year program with Hinds Community College. The hospital was sold to a corporation in the early 1990's.

The Sisters of Mercy order was founded in 1831 by Catherine McAuley of Dublin, Ireland, “who left as her legacy the largest community of religious women in the English-speaking world,” Sister Paulinus wrote in “Angels of Mercy.”

“The sisters in Vicksburg have done exactly what the order was called to do,” she said, trailing off with a quote from Scripture: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people…”  The Vicksburg Post

NOTE:  We were so fortunate to live in the time that we did to receive the religious education from the Sisters of Mercy and the Brothers Of The Sacred Heart.  I thank God and my parents for my education by the Sisters of Mercy.  This is a sad ending of an era in our hometown of Vicksburg, MS for the Angels of Mercy and the Brothers Of The Sacred Heart. 

Feast Of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

On this day we celebrate the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. He was born on March 9, 1568, and died on June 21, 1591.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga left his powerful family to become a Jesuit priest and died as a young man caring for plague victims.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga is the Patron Saint of youth. ✝️

#saintaloysius #patronsaintofyouth #vicksburgcatholicschool#1school1family