Sister Therese Marie Frey

Sister Therese Marie Frey was born in Pierron, Illinois, a town with a population of 325. Therese Marie had three brothers and one sister. Sister’s dad was a truck driver and she remembers riding in her dad’s truck to St. Louis. When they got there, she and her daddy would join the other truck drivers for lunch. She was the cute little girl with her daddy among all these guys and she really enjoyed that. She was the little princess who gave all the truck drivers their daytime smile.

Therese went to the local parish school where she was taught by the School Sisters of St. Francis. She loved her first-grade teacher so much that she wanted to be at the teacher’s desk all the time helping her. But Sister would say to her, “Therese Marie, you go and sit down now.”

It was at this school that she first heard the call to become a School Sister of St. Francis. When she was about ready to graduate from eighth grade, she asked the Sister Superior, “Sister Viator, what do I need to do to go to the convent?” Sister Viator replied, “You just did it.” Therese Marie had taken that first step by talking to the principal and indicating her interest in the community.

Therese Marie came to the convent after eighth grade. She chose to enter at that time because she did not want to attend Father Kunch’s two-year Catholic high school in Pierron, where the girls were required to wear long stockings, even in the summer.

After a two-year Aspirancy, a year of Postulancy, and two years of Novitiate, Therese Marie was sent out to teach, which she really enjoyed. She served as principal of a school and then moved into religious education, and pastoral ministry before serving in the congregation’s Mission Advancement Office and the Provincial Office.

Early in her teaching career, Sister Therese Marie was responsible for training and supervising the altar servers as well as teaching a full classroom of up to 60 students. One of the servers, Greg Spitz, helped her train the new servers. She sensed that he would one day become a priest, and he did. They have remained friends ever since.

Father Greg is now a senior priest and has celebrated Mass in St. Joseph Chapel. After Sister Therese Marie retired, she and Father Greg would sometimes attend baseball and football games together, as she is a fan of the Brewers, the Bucks, and the Green Bay Packers.

Now that Sister Therese Frey is 97 years old, she lives at Sacred Heart. One of the things she loves to do there is walk in the halls and greet people with that beautiful smile of hers. She says that “walking helps to keep my weight down.” This probably is a good thing as she also loves her ice cream and will often get some later in the evening!

Sister enjoys singing and knows all the words to the songs. She also prays a lot for any intentions that come to her mind, or those prayers that are shared with her through our community prayer network.

Congratulations, Sister Therese Marie, on your 80th Jubilee.