FORT SMITH — Most people think of orphans as “motherless,” but to John W. Findley, being an orphan gave him many mothers — the Benedictine sisters who raised him, his brother and two sisters at St. Joseph Home in North Little Rock.
The four children were brought to the orphanage by their father, Joe Findley, after their mother died on June 26, 1927. Their father, who was a business owner, promised to give the sisters $40 to $50 a month and a milk cow to help feed them.
The older three siblings lived in the gender-segregated wings of the orphanage and Findley, only 2 years old, began life as an orphan in the baby wing. He remained at the orphanage until he was 15, when he rebelled against the structured lifestyle and began living on his own.
At 17 he joined the Army as an anti-aircraft machine gunner, and upon his discharge he went back to the orphanage to see Sister Michael Stieble, OSB, the director of the boys’ wing, for some motherly advice.
In his book of childhood memories, “Bitter Weeds, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches,” Findley described his first visit back to the orphanage.
“Upon my discharge, I went back to St. Joseph’s to visit Sister Michael, where she told me there was no market for machine gunners. So, I took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights and went to school for industrial electricians.”
Upon graduation, Findley and his first wife Myra moved to Pacoima, Calif., and raised four daughters. He got divorced and married Ruth, who had two children of her own, in the 1960s. After they retired, the Findleys started traveling across the United States, and he began thinking about writing about his childhood at St. Joseph.
“John and Ruth came to St. Joseph’s almost every year to take pictures,” Sister Vivian Luyet, OSB, one of the last sisters to live at the home, said. “He was always disappointed when things had changed. He dearly loved the nuns and the nuns dearly loved him. We became good friends. He died in 2007, but Ruthie still writes me, Sister Rosalie (Ruesewald), and Sister Anne Michele (Raley, OSB) all the time.”
In an interview with Arkansas Catholic, his widow Ruth Findley said, “John spent five years writing the book. While we were traveling across the country he’d meet up with other people who were there the same time he was. Somebody would tell a story about a goose or something they’d done and he’d say, ’Gotta get that in the book.’”
Some of his favorite memories were of Sister Michael; Sister Jeannette Yaeger, his godmother, who had also grown up in St. Joseph Home; and Sister Herman Joseph Berkemeyer, his first-grade teacher. And although Sister Michael died in 1956, Findley had many years to renew his friendships with Sisters Jeannette and Herman Joseph.
“Everybody loved her (Sister Herman Joseph),” Findley wrote. “She treated her students like a mother hen treats her brood of chicks — lots of love and attention … every time I went to see her I got that secure feeling that always seemed to be present near her. She was well into her 90s when she went to heaven.”
Findley completed his 205-page book shortly before his death on Oct. 2, 2007.
“He had it all ready to go,” Ruth Findley said. “His former boss got the pictures and text and put it together for him. We printed 50 copies. We were sorry he wasn’t around to see it printed. I just did the best I could.”
The book is part of both his legacy and Arkansas history. While the love of the sisters cushioned some of the difficulties of growing up in an orphanage, Findley described a life that was filled with lots of chores and few luxuries.
Gifts were always practical — clothing, fruit and nuts — and infrequent. Some orphans had families who took them back for extended visits, but Findley only had one much older half-brother who visited and invited him for occasional stays on the farm.
The sisters expected good behavior, and boys or girls who disobeyed the rules had to pick 100, 200 or 300 bitter weeds in the garden. But there were rewards, too — peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — to share when chores were done. Orphanage life was filled with routines. Children were bathed every six days, one after another, in five or six bathtubs.
The boys and girls attended daily Mass and memorized their prayers quickly. If they didn’t know their prayers they had to write them down 100 or even 200 times. Even so, 17 young women who had grown up at the orphanage became Benedictine sisters.
Ruth Findley has a few books left from the first printing, but said she would consider a small second printing if there was sufficient interest. Mail can be sent to Findley in care of St. Scholastica Monastery, P.O. Box 3489, Fort Smith, AR 72913.
