The family moved when she was 6 to the house in which Sister Marian still lives, which features a view of the Ohio River.
“We had gooseberry bushes, and my mother gave me a gallon bucket and told me if I’d fill the bucket, she’d make me a gooseberry pie,” Sister Marian said. “I spent all day gathering those tiny gooseberries. Then she showed me how to prepare them.” Unfortunately, the story didn’t have a happy ending.
“She made the gooseberry pie, and I hated it,” she said with her hearty laugh.
Sister Marian’s beloved dog Inny, pictured here with the late Sister Georgetta Higdon at Maple Mount.
Four of the Powers’ 10 children followed a religious vocation. Sister Marian’s oldest sister is Sister Ann Roberta Powers, a Sister of Charity of Nazareth who has ministered as a teacher in India for 62 years. Ursuline Sister Rose Jean is 10 years younger, and her late brother Clyde was a priest. It was her parents’ example that showed the importance of God in their life, she said.
“My parents never preached religion to us, they lived it,” she said. “They were kind to everybody. The railroad was not too far, and when beggars would come by, my mother would ask them to come in.”
The family lived just a few blocks from St. Rose of Lima Church in Cloverport.
“Mom said at least one member of the family had to be at Mass every day,” Sister Marian said. “You bring Jesus home to the rest of us,” was her mother’s request.
The Powers family suffered several tragedies, which caused Eva Mae Powers to bury four of her children. The youngest boy, Randy, drowned at age 21, and Clyde died at 41 in a car accident, just three years after he was ordained a priest. Sister Marian has five siblings still living, including her youngest sister, Augusta Mae “Gussie” Powers, who lives with her in Cloverport. “We do everything together,” Sister Marian said.
The Ursuline Sisters were all very supportive during the deaths in her family, Sister Marian said. “We’re like one big family, when one of us hurts, they all hurt.”
Sister Marian’s senior picture from the 1951 class of Mount Saint Joseph Academy.
Academy girl
The boys in her family attended the public high school in Cloverport, but Sister Marian’s parents wanted the girls to attend private school. Sister Ann Roberta went to St. Vincent’s Academy in Waverly, Ky., which was run by the Sisters of Charity, but Sister Marian got a scholarship to attend Mount Saint Joseph Academy, as did Sister Rose Jean and Gussie.
“The Ursulines taught us in Cloverport at St. Rose of Lima,” Sister Marian said. Sister Mary Cornelius Smith taught her sixth through eighth grades, and was instrumental in getting her a scholarship to the Academy.
“The nuns all said they knew I would be a nun, but I didn’t know it,” Sister Marian said.
She loved her years at the Academy. “Being a boarder, we could sneak around and do things,” Sister Marian said with a grin. “The sisters were very empathetic that we were away from home.
“We weren’t allowed to leave campus, but we wanted to go to a store in St. Joseph that had homemade ice cream,” Sister Marian said. “We asked Sister Marguerite (Younker), ‘Can we go to Joetown for ice cream?’ and she said, ‘You know I can’t give you permission to do that. But if I don’t see you, nothing can be done about it.’ Then she turned her back and we took off,” Sister Marian said.
Sister Marian had to work to pay the rest of her tuition, and one job she had was in the library with Sister Joseph Marie Williams. “She had to read all the new books to make sure there was nothing objectionable for us,” Sister Marian said. “She let me read the new books, and I’d tell her if they were OK or not.”
As a freshman she worked in the girl’s infirmary, and one day Sister Mary Paul Montgomery asked her to sit down over a snack of buttermilk and cornbread to talk about her parents. When Sister Marian started to cry, Sister Mary Paul told her she sensed she was homesick. “After that, I was fine,” Sister Marian said.