By David Myers

Southwest Kansas Register

LARNED — In its 68-year history, Sacred Heart School in Larned has seen thousands of students and staff pass through its doors — an all-too-brief stop along the journey, but one that left memories as vibrant as a field of Kansas sunflowers.

Many of those students and teachers gathered June 5 to bid a sad farewell to the school, which, with the conclusion of this school year, closed its doors for the last time.

"It is a bittersweet occasion to come to the end of something that we love and that we’ve sacrificed for," said Sacred Heart pastor Father Dennis Reed, during a Mass prior to a dinner reception.

"We are a victim of changing demographics," he added, referring to the dwindling number of new students.

"So it’s time to turn over the A-B-Cs and the reading, writing and arithmetic to other capable hands. But the teaching of God … we turn over to no one. That’s always been our responsibility."

Sacred Heart School’s bell rang for the first time in 1936, with Dominican Sisters Hyacinth Lingg and Fidelis Klein serving as the first teachers at the new school, and Sister Romana Henning serving as housekeeper.

"Father Thomas O’Brien told Mother Inviolata that he wanted sisters for the school," Sister Fidelis, who went back to her baptismal name of Sister Marie, said from the Dominican Mother House in Great Bend. "She told him if he had a house and a school, she would send three sisters. When we came, the house was not ready, but we helped get it ready. We had the bathrooms added on."

The sisters lived in the upstairs of the house, while the school was on the main floor.

"I remember the people were so eager to get that school started," Sister Marie said. "They did anything to make us comfortable in the house. The ladies [in the community] did all they could to make us welcome and get the school started. We were just happy to get to work and do all we could to have the children love their religion."

Sister Marie was greeted enthusiastically by those attending the recent gathering, many offering a hug or handshake to the sister they had once crooked their necks to peer up at.

Born in Clark County near Minneola, Sister Marie attended St. Mary of the Plains Academy in Dodge City, the daughter of a carpenter. She and both her siblings — Ruth and Mary Ann — entered the Religious life. While in her mid-20s, Sister Marie was called to serve at the new Sacred Heart School in Larned.

"That was before TV," Sister Marie said, "and before we had vacuum cleaners. We had no janitors; the sisters and the students were the janitors. In my room, we were really crowded, but we got along real fine. They were good children, and I loved them. They learned to read and write by Christmas-time. I was so happy. I was a young teacher and had never taught the first grade."

Following a dinner of barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, RCIA director Sister Irene Hartman, O.P., presented a history of Sacred Heart School, with the help of Regis Lophea and Charles Befort. From the gymnasium stage, the three read from a script penned by Sister Irene, which drew laughter and plenty of memories from the audience.

"…The three set out upon a great quest for instilling the three R’s and much more into the lives of the many students who poured into their first school," Sister Irene read, in reference to the first three sisters who worked at the school. "This was the beginning of 43 years the Sisters would serve Sacred Heart School. Forty students in grades one-eight enrolled that fall of 1936."

The Dominican Sisters taught at Sacred Heart School until 1979, when they left for the last time and a fully lay-staff was realized.

The student count would fluctuate in the years to follow, and would begin to steadily decrease in the latter 90s.

"As the enrollment did not improve in the new century," Befort read, "there was serious consideration of closing Sacred Heart School. Pre-school was added, and also Day Care, but neither gave much hope for a better enrollment. Early this spring, the fateful news became real. The school would be closed in May, 2004."