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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
Rights
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
Creator
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
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2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence
Subject
The topic of the resource
Sister Hughetta's Correspondences
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gerald Chaudron
Source
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MSS 54 - 137
Publisher
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 2014
Contributor
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Dr. Franklin Wright
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Description
An account of the resource
This document comes from the Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence folder in the Special Collections of the University of Memphis. The folder contains undated correspondences from Sister Hughetta. These were held by the Episcopal Archives in Sewanee, Tennessee. In this letter, she discussed the need for the Sisters to have their own home apart from the chapel. She refers to this as a "Sisters' Home". This way the women could have more privacy to help live out their religious lives the way that they should. This is the only part from the letter that is included in our essay over religion. Not only did she ask about a home for the Sisters, but she also described how the church needed a big chapel to praise and worship God in.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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a290647091ef403c8c0bb2267ceeb74d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Religion
Subject
The topic of the resource
Religion, 2016
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
Contributor
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Peru's Call Answered By Sister
Subject
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Religion
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This is a newspaper article from an unknown publisher that is dated to be from August 5, 1983. The article details Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's decision to uproot her life and work in a needy village in Peru. In the article, it states that Sister Mary Anne Guthrie believed that the Lord was calling her to go to Peru and assist in the peasant village there. The article then details Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's background information. It discusses her previous roll as Bishop Carrol T. Dozier's administrative assistant. It briefly mentions her involvement with St. Peter Manor, which is housing for the elderly. The article states that when Sister Mary Anne Guthrie decided she wanted to travel elsewhere, she considered going to Lebanon, Guatemala, or Peru. She decided Peru needed the greatest amount of help after meeting a women Dominican nun that was living there. The article accounts the extremely levels of poverty in Peru at the time. According to the article, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie received a sponsor from the Dominican sisters of St. Catharine. The article goes on to announce that Bishop Stafford and Dozier would be giving her a liturgy to honor all of the work she did for the church. More background information is given about Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, such as her work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before working under Bishop Dozier. The article accounts Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s rise to being a very influential figure in the diocese, and her eventual running for the Democratic Nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. The last line of the article states that although she did not receive the nomination, the man who did, Rep. Harold Ford, appointed Sister Mary Anne Guthrie as co-chairman of his campaign.
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Michael Clark
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MSS 475 Box 370B Folder 3
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
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University of Memphis Libraries
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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99a4f9ada0df34cfd8d9fd60ec111eb5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
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2016
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<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
Contributor
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
Dublin Core
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Title
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R.B. Snowden Family Papers
Subject
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Biography Information on Sister Hughetta Snowden
Creator
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Louisa Bowen, Victoria Moore, and Gerald Chaudron
Source
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MSS 65
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University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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December 2014
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William W. Deupree and Nancy Deupree Crisamore
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Description
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This document is part of a finding key in the Special Collections at the University of Memphis. We used the biography information on Sister Hughetta Snowden to give us a little background information on the Sister. This information tells us that Sister Hughetta lived from 1848 to 1926. It also tells us that she was the youngest child in her family. She became one of the Episcopal Sisters of St. Mary at the age of 23. The Sister helped to found the Episcopal School for Girls in Memphis, Tennessee. And during the yellow fever outbreak, she helped to care for the sick. The Sisters turned the school into a hospital during that time. After the epidemic, she went on to establish another school and convent in Sewanee, Tennessee. Once she got older, she was transferred back to the motherhouse in New York. This is where she eventually died in 1926.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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1cf9bceaf7e518ede25504184dfa12c1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
Rights
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
Creator
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
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2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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Title
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Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie
Subject
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Religion, Congress, Memphis, Guthrie, Mary Anne
Description
An account of the resource
In this newspaper article, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie says she wants “a national health system in America that would not destroy free enterprise” within the medical field. She told a group at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she feels as though there is not one health insurance bill before Congress that is correctly or completely financed. Sister Mary Anne feels as though there needs to be other ways to finance health insurance that does not involve over-taxing the middle class.<br /><br /> Once a part of Congress, Sister Guthrie wants to author a bill that will emphasize preventive cares, rather than therapeutic ones. Although the Sister is not in favor of socialized medicine, she understands it may be in Memphis’ near future if some drastic changes are not made soon because “even the wealthy are prices out of quality medical care,” she added. All opposition toward the community-style health insurance plans welcome, but will be fought off especially from the interest groups such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA), (since they are notorious for opposing government-based national health insurance). Sister Mary Anne questions whether or not the AMA and AHA really are a service to all people. She challenges their record. <br /><br />Sister Mary Anne would like to see neighborhood health cares established to educate residents, especially the elderly, in preventative medicine. Prior to this article, there was a lowering of bus fare rates for the elderly so they could better manage to get transportation to and from the medical centers, but more needs to be done. Sister Mary Anne stresses the importance of “gray power” when it comes to voting. She hopes to see a large turnout of older voters for the upcoming primary. She closes with the quote, “we don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity.”
Source
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MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3
Publisher
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University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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July 20, 1974
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
Rights
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
Creator
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
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2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie
Subject
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Religion, Congress, Memphis, Guthrie, Mary Anne
Description
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In this newspaper article, the main topic is how a Democratic candidate and the president of a plywood paneling firm, Mark Flanagan, decided to stop competing for the Eighth District Congressional race so he could support Sister Mary Anne Guthrie—another Democrat in the race. He made his decision based off the fact he and Sister Mary Anne stood for the same things. At a news conference, Flanagan spoke about his goal—to achieve a more diverse Memphis. He is quoted saying, “We can’t tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism.” There was a rumor going around that Harold Ford, the only black candidate, was manipulating black racism, and Flanagan couldn’t support him as a Democratic candidate. <br /><br />Sister Mary Anne felt Flanagan’s endorsement was just the thing to unify the Democratic Party. Despite the fact of not having any black endorsement, Sister Mary Anne said she still hoped to win the majority of black votes. She also went on to say she was currently not able to receive any endorsement because the Ford family was so prominent and pressured blacks for their votes. There was no way she could support Ford if he were the Democratic nominee, simply for the fact that he could not unify the Democratic Party as a whole to beat the Republicans in November.<br /><br /> Sister Mary Anne is still in the race, along with Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, and Charles Burch, and Joan Best.
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MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3
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University of Memphis Libraries
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July 29, 1974
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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5c2177fae665f32a5d1d5535ef72e441
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In this newspaper article found in the Commercial Appeal, Michael Clark writes about the anguish that has come about from the expansion of a church. Bellevue Baptist Church had been gradually expanding, each time taking more and more land that used to be housing complexes and stores. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie disagrees with Bellevue Baptist Church’s means of expansion. The Sister feels as though the church is putting people out of their homes and taking up as much land as they can. The church does not feel the same. They feel as though they are doing what is best for the church and all its members. This clash caused a big war on religions in Memphis. Bellevue Baptist Church was the home to thousands of churchgoers, and their numbers were continuously growing. Outsiders looking in were torn between the decision to tell the church they could not expand or to leave them be. The church needed to be able to fit the needs of the churchgoers, but it also wasn’t right to put people out of their homes.
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Religion
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Religion, 2016
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
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2016
Description
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<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
Contributor
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Bellevue Case Symbolizes Split Views
Subject
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Religion, Bellevue, Memphis, Guthrie, Mary Anne
Description
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In this newspaper article found in the Commercial Appeal, Michael Clark writes about the anguish that has come about from the expansion of a church. Bellevue Baptist Church had been gradually expanding, each time taking more and more land that used to be housing complexes or stores. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie disagrees with Bellevue Baptist Church about their means of expansion. The Sister feels as though the church is putting people out of their homes to take up as much land as they can. The church does not feel the same they feel they are doing what is best for the church and all its members. This clash caused a big war on religions in Memphis during the time. Outsiders looking in were torn between whether or not to tell the church they could not expand or how they can expand.
(More to be edited.)
Creator
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Michael Clark, the Commercial Appeal
Source
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MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3
Publisher
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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May 28, 1983
Contributor
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Clark, Michael
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
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cd874cc73df8b2370fca7dab83a43a1b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
Rights
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
Creator
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
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2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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Title
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Catholic Nun Seeks Nomination for Congress from 8th District
Subject
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Religion, Congress, Memphis, Guthrie, Mary Anne
Description
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In this newspaper article created by Beth Tamke, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie speaks on why she chose to run for Congress for the 8th district. The Sister had been considering the race for two weeks prior to speaking to the newspaper. Guthrie feels as though her running for Congress will help make necessary changes to help the people within the district, (and it doesn’t hurt that she is a nun as well.) One of the biggest issues of the time, is the integrity of the government, feels Guthrie. She says that instead of spending billions of dollars on the defense system, more should be put towards helping people who are in need. She is the first woman to enter the nomination race along with four other men. Sister Guthrie hopes to win the votes of women, men, young people and older people. Her campaign will be funded by the peoples’ contributions making it a “people campaign.” Although, she is venturing on a very different path in her life, she still believes running for Congress is a form of service in her ministry.
The article goes on to say how the Sister’s views are moderate, and tells about her past experiences. Sister Guthrie is a Memphis native, she graduated from St. Agnes Academy, she is a registered nurse, and a graduate student from Notre Dame and St. Louis University. She was an administrator for St. John’s Hospital in Spalding, Nebraska, a night supervisor at City of Memphis Hospital, and a nurse practitioner for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before working for the Diocese of Memphis.
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Beth Tamke
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MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3
Publisher
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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May 30, 1974
Contributor
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Tamke, Beth
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/df63dcb0640f8b3f67a3e136c233e935.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=T4IJiD98eLfm-edCt8OkdyVIowelO8ft35%7EPlO96Mfg62K3JlbSs0ys66v7UyGjglSGspTKosWL9MiLDqyw1iVaJ5saPhgrb4rcPxAoNmKR0yf0WqMwzlneGGkwASeEwEwNylZvrCMdUoNoxrMVz4fQfr8yZ5lD6JfCvRAJeIsZhZ6PHL502jAjIBFcdqsodficA-QXjs2AggkWyGMEa7gFi9xr8uV7S7xcHJFzP9SNXNstuwfyGufCd1D3tU8kq5nunggFCcZSfjm8BLTIC4YV5huXzEp78zuu%7Es9cHg4tj3i28%7E-0n7akEuWqYnT1wg-3qyWQfo3LChqcHTWBZrw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
9e60a37365791bfb52dad4389bf0a8fb
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Title
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Religion
Subject
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Religion, 2016
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
Date
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2016
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sister Hughetta Memorial
Subject
The topic of the resource
Religion, Memorial
Description
An account of the resource
Sister Hughetta Snowden passed away on February 1st, 1926. There was memorial service held in her honor. This is a pamphlet for Sister Hughetta's memorial. They used this pamphlet to highlight the parts of her life they wanted to remember at the memorial. The text in the pamphlet begins with an account of her death and the many contributions she made to her community. It contains a history of Sister Hughetta’s Snowden life and work. It details her birthplace in New York City and how the Sisterhood of St. Mary was established. It describes Sister Hughetta Snowden as a person of “culture and prominence” and her joining of the Sisterhood of St. Mary. The memorial pamphlet goes on to describe the Sisterhood’s move to Memphis, Tennessee and the outbreak of yellow fever in the Memphis Community. According to the pamphlet, the sisters began to nurse those who fell victim of the yellow fever outbreak back to health and became pillars of the Memphis community. The pamphlet then tells of the founding of St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies in 1873, and Sister Hughetta taking her final vows and becoming a choir sister within the St. Mary’s community in 1874. Sister Hughetta Snowden’s promotion to Sister Superior of Southern work is described, and her “indomitable will and strong personality” is noted. It accounts a story of a fire completely destroying her school, but Sister Hughetta Snowden’s optimism kept the school afloat and a new one was built. A quote from Bishop Gailor accounting Sister Hughetta Snowden’s character is contained in this pamphlet, and finally a conclusion stating her “unselfish service to humanity.”
Creator
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St. Mary's Cathedral
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.
Publisher
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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1926
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016