FORT SMITH — Sister deChantal Hyland, OSB, who recently retired from an 80-year career as principal, teacher and tutor, will celebrate her 100th birthday Oct. 7.
She spent 82 of those 100 years as a Benedictine sister, having traveled from her home in Nazareth, Texas, to Shoal Creek, Ark., in 1923. She taught for 61 years in Nazareth; St. Edward and St. Theresa schools in Little Rock; and St. Boniface School in Fort Smith. After she retired, she was a substitute teacher for a number of years. Even after substitute teaching was not possible, she was a private tutor until age 97.
“Sister deChantal was my eighth grade teacher at St. Theresa School, Little Rock,” Msgr. Scott Friend said. “She was one of the top five teachers I had in my long school career.”
Besides giving him skills in grammar and language that helped him learn foreign languages easily as an adult, Sister deChantal inspired Msgr. Friend by her commitment to her faith and religious life.
“I saw Sister deChantal recently,” he laughed, “and she said, ’I never thought I’d see you preach a sermon, and I never thought I’d be so deaf I couldn’t hear it.’”
At St. Scholastica Monastery, Sister deChantal continues to follow educational trends through the newspaper, radio and television. Drawing from 80 years of experience, she has many thoughts on education today.
“When I first started teaching in 1925, there was a high respect for authority and life was simple,” she said. “Obedience was easy, and life didn’t have the problems it has today. During World War II, I knew that the boys I taught would go off to war after they graduated, and that was difficult.”
“After the war,” Sister deChantal continued, “where there was simplicity, we had sophistication; respect for authority broke down.
“Today, parents are less involved in their children’s education. Families aren’t as large, and they don’t sit down for dinner together.”
Reading her neatly written notes, Sister deChantal enumerated the influx of fears that children have to deal with in today’s society: divorce, drugs, alcohol, sexual predators, pornography, gambling and guns in backpacks.
She noted two other factors that make education today more difficult than in previous years.
“In the past, schools were run by educators, not government,” she said. “And teachers were good. Their lives were not cluttered by TV, and they spent more time correcting papers and making lesson plans.”
In addition to teaching English, Sister deChantal frequently served as janitor, librarian and coach. While teaching in Nazareth, Texas, she taught ballroom dancing to the students.
“I taught for 12 years in a small country school,” she said. “I took dancing so that I could teach the teenagers, and then I taught them in my long black habit. I demonstrated the dance and they stood behind me, following my steps. I taught the one-step, the two-step, the foxtrot and the waltz.”
Sister deChantal still attends most prayers and services in chapel, walking with a walker and keeps busy with her hobbies — reading and listening to or watching sports events, especially her favorite teams, the Razorbacks, the University of Notre Dame and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Perhaps anticipating that her 100th birthday might be marked by birthday greetings on “The Today Show” or a letter from President George W. Bush, Sister deChantal reminisced about one time her enthusiasm for sports landed her on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Sister Florence and I were taking a summer college course in St. Louis,” Sister deChantal said. “We went to a Cardinals/ Brewers game wearing our long habits. I was so busy filling in my scorecard and rooting for the Cardinals that I didn’t notice a photographer taking our picture. The next morning our picture was on page 1 of the Post-Dispatch, and I was holding my scorecard upside down.”
She attributes her long life to prayer, serenity, hard work and laughter. “Sister Louis gave me a prayer card to the Sacred Heart,” she said, “which says, in part, ’give me strength of mind and body.’ I say that prayer every day.”
On Oct. 6-7, Sister deChantal will celebrate her birthday with her family, extended family and community. Three sisters and one brother will join the celebration — Joan Homan of Springfield, Mo.; Joyce Tingle of Arlington, Texas; Sister Frances Ann Braddock of St. Scholastica Monastery; and Brother Gerald Hyland, a Marist Brother in St. Louis.
The celebration will begin with a Texas style pizza party Oct. 6 and Mass at 11:15 a.m. Oct. 7. Sister deChantal’s former student, Msgr. Friend, diocesan vocations director, will be the celebrant.
Looking forward to her second century of life, Sister deChantal said, “I lived through two World Wars, the Depression, the Industrial Revolution, the Technology Revolution, the Space Age — putting a man on the moon — and Vatican II. I enjoyed those periods of growth and now I must face this Communication or Computer Age.”
