FAMILY HISTORY
Myra Rose Stratton was born May 30, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois, to Charles ("Charlie") Stratton (from whom Myra would later adopt her name as a nun) and Rose McMonagle (or MacMunnagle or Munnagle; there has been much discussion about the various spellings of Rose's maiden name).
Charles, who was of English heritage, is listed as a cabinet shop welder in the census data from that period, and others remember him as a security guard at a defense plant, although Myra tells me that he was very involved in politics. Republican politics were certainly prominent in the Stratton family: Myra's first-cousin-once-removed William G. Stratton was Governor of Illinois from 1953 to 1961, and his father, William J. Stratton (Myra's great uncle), was the Illinois Secretary of State from 1929 to 1933.
Myra's mother Rose, an Irish woman with nine siblings, hailed from Holy Hill, Wisconsin, and was a seamstress who worked in a dress shop in downtown Chicago.
Myra had two older siblings: Myrtle Marie and Charles, Jr. ("Chuck"). She attended St. Mel's High School in Chicago.
Charles, who was of English heritage, is listed as a cabinet shop welder in the census data from that period, and others remember him as a security guard at a defense plant, although Myra tells me that he was very involved in politics. Republican politics were certainly prominent in the Stratton family: Myra's first-cousin-once-removed William G. Stratton was Governor of Illinois from 1953 to 1961, and his father, William J. Stratton (Myra's great uncle), was the Illinois Secretary of State from 1929 to 1933.
Myra's mother Rose, an Irish woman with nine siblings, hailed from Holy Hill, Wisconsin, and was a seamstress who worked in a dress shop in downtown Chicago.
Myra had two older siblings: Myrtle Marie and Charles, Jr. ("Chuck"). She attended St. Mel's High School in Chicago.
THE NUNHOOD
Myra did not enter politics but instead chose to become a nun and in about 1942 (when she graduated from high school) she joined the BVM order: Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. An exquisite writer, she taught English and Communications for many years at Catholic schools in Chicago (St. Jerome's, from at least 1946 to 1951; the now-closed St. Mary's High School, where she taught from at least 1965 to 1967; and St. Ignatius High School, where she taught English and Swimming/Diving(!) in at least 1968), Dubuque (Wahlert High School for two years in the early 60's), and New York (St. Thomas the Apostle on Long Island). While she was a nun, she got her English degree in 1959 from St. John's University, New York; received her master's degree from Creighton University in Omaha; and did coursework towards her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno in the late 1960s but did not complete her dissertation. In 1971 she left the nunhood.
Legions of grateful students remember her. One of them was Kathy Farren, past-president of the Illinois Press Association (IPA). The IPA website formerly noted the following about Ms. Farren: “ ‘I wouldn’t be in this profession if it wasn’t for Sister Mary Laurencita,’ she said. The 80-year-old high school grammar and literature teacher had a dour personality, Farren explained. So Kathy opted out of those classes in favor of journalism and literature 'with the smiling, 30-year-old Sister Charlesita. If Sister Laurencita had ever once smiled, I might be a home ec teacher today, which was what my father wanted.’ ” Sister nuns also recall her fondly and remain impressed by her intellect and progressive ideology; one remembers that Myra encouraged her to include Film Study in the Communications curriculum in the 60s, at a time when high school students were typically not yet being exposed to the cinema as art. And Kathy (Sheehan) Kovarik, another journalism student and Art Editor of the school newspaper, recalls that after St. Mary's had abandoned the school newspaper for some years, the students wanted to resurrect it and Sister Charlesita was a "vital advocate in that regard. Working with her and learning from her was a joy. I remember her as a kind and patient teacher; a true educator. Our class of '67 had more than its share of strong personalities and Sr. Charlesita embraced all of us" (see more in Comments section).
Legions of grateful students remember her. One of them was Kathy Farren, past-president of the Illinois Press Association (IPA). The IPA website formerly noted the following about Ms. Farren: “ ‘I wouldn’t be in this profession if it wasn’t for Sister Mary Laurencita,’ she said. The 80-year-old high school grammar and literature teacher had a dour personality, Farren explained. So Kathy opted out of those classes in favor of journalism and literature 'with the smiling, 30-year-old Sister Charlesita. If Sister Laurencita had ever once smiled, I might be a home ec teacher today, which was what my father wanted.’ ” Sister nuns also recall her fondly and remain impressed by her intellect and progressive ideology; one remembers that Myra encouraged her to include Film Study in the Communications curriculum in the 60s, at a time when high school students were typically not yet being exposed to the cinema as art. And Kathy (Sheehan) Kovarik, another journalism student and Art Editor of the school newspaper, recalls that after St. Mary's had abandoned the school newspaper for some years, the students wanted to resurrect it and Sister Charlesita was a "vital advocate in that regard. Working with her and learning from her was a joy. I remember her as a kind and patient teacher; a true educator. Our class of '67 had more than its share of strong personalities and Sr. Charlesita embraced all of us" (see more in Comments section).
NICKNAME
Apparently, Myra's nickname -- at least while she was teaching as a nun -- was "Chuckles."
PUBLISHED ARTICLE AND LETTER
In May 1968, Sister Myra Stratton authored an article in Commonweal magazine entitled "Sister Scabs in the Suburbs" about tense relations between unionized teachers and the school administration. Myra was extremely dedicated to justice for teachers at the time and worked with other nuns to form a teacher's union in the Chicago diocese in the late 60s.
In 1970, she wrote a letter to the editor of Commonweal, recounting the story of her trip with other nuns to Washington, D.C., for a peace march in 1968, only to be turned away by the Catholic nuns and embraced by the Presbyterian church.
In 1970, she wrote a letter to the editor of Commonweal, recounting the story of her trip with other nuns to Washington, D.C., for a peace march in 1968, only to be turned away by the Catholic nuns and embraced by the Presbyterian church.
MYRA'S SPARKLE
While she was in Reno, and still a nun, Myra often needed extra money at the end of the month. She solved the problem by impishly devising a scheme in which she would visit a casino and stealthily watch people play the machines. When someone left a non-paying machine, Myra herself would grab it and play until she received the requisite payout!
THE STRATTON TRIAL
Governor William G. Stratton was put on trial for corruption in 1965 and was completely exonerated. What is notable here is that during the trial Senator Everett Dirkson read a letter he received from “a humble little nun—Sister Mary Charlesita, BVM, a teacher in the Regina convent in Dubuque, Iowa who wrote that her prayers were with the former governor in this case.” She wrote that “there are few whose lives could be scrutinized as was yours in this endless presentation of minutiae without revealing weakness or vice.” According to Chicago writer and broadcaster Thomas F. Roeser, "After that, there was such quiet in the courtroom that the ticking of the clock could be heard." Sister Charlesita's admonition was more than prescient when one considers the scrutiny under which everyone is forced to operate in the 21st century.
CAREER WITH U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
After she withdrew from the nunhood, Myra lived and worked in New Jersey and then began working for the U.S. Department of Labor in downtown New York City, ensuring labor compliance at colleges and universities. She later moved to Washington and worked for the Maritime Department, and eventually she became the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance in San Francisco, where it appears that her last role involved helping women find work in nontraditional jobs formerly dominated by men. During this time she also became president of a San Francisco chapter of the Lions Club. She retired from public service in 1994, at the age of 70, after 22 years of service.
RETIREMENT
Myra spent her last years in San Francisco, California. She passed away on May 28, 2014.