Sister Leola was born in Cleveland, Ohio November 15, 1917, the first of the five children of August and Anna (nee Lavelle) Hausser. Her parents named her Leona Ann. Her father ran a bakery on East 85th Street which she herself immortalized in a piece of creative writing that appeared in “Reminiscence” magazine. She is survived by her three sisters, Ruth, Eileen and Kathleen, her brother, Jim, and 21 nieces and nephews.
A 1935 graduate of Notre Dame Academy on Ansel Road, Cleveland, Sister Leola entered the Sisters of Notre Dame, Cleveland in 1936 and received her religious name of “Sister Leola.” She made her first vows in 1939 and her final profession in 1945.
Sister Leola completed her BA at Notre Dame College, South Euclid, in 1941; her MA at Notre Dame University, South Bend in 1952 and her MS in Religious Education at St. John College, Cleveland in 1973. She taught English at the high school level from 1941 – 1970 including assignments in the Cleveland Diocese at St. Michael, St. Stephen and St. Peter High Schools and Notre Dame Academy, Cleveland and in the Youngstown Diocese at the former St. Mary High School, Warren. She also taught for one semester at Notre Dame College, South Euclid.
In 1970 she decided to transfer to the Sisters of the Humility of Mary. She then taught at Lourdes Academy and Erieview Catholic High School, Cleveland and Magnificat High School, Rocky River. From 1977 – 94 she was involved on college campuses serving first as a campus minister at Millersville State University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and then at now Walsh University, North Canton where she was a part-time instructor and staff member in addition to coordinating the Institute for Justice and Peace.
In her “retirement” she participated in the ministry of prayer and pursued her love of creative writing, literature [Shakespearean and others] and social justice issues. She organized literary activities, conducted a weekly film night and arranged for speakers for her “Authors Up Close” series. Her “Scriveners” series encouraged other retirees to write creatively. She was also an instructor for Elderhostel courses.
It was truly fitting that Sister Leola wrote her own elegy in verse seven years ago.
Leola Hausser, HM
(1917-2010)
To share all her gifts, to enrich others'
Lives. Love for the arts was hers all her life:
Of Shakespeare and Chaucer, of Yeats and of
Heaney, of Brodsky and Walcott, and of
Course there was Van Gogh, Monet and Gauguin.
The works of Karl Rahner she loved with
A passion. But all her life's center was
Focused on John and his Gospel of love.
And now the realms of Eternity are
All hers to roam with the God of her life
She so valiantly strove her HM life to live.
January 2003
Contributions in memory of Sister Leola Hausser may be forwarded to the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, Development Office, PO Box 534, Villa Maria PA 16155.
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