Although she is the oldest professed Springfield Dominican, Sister Mary Pauletta Overbeck, OP, isn't planning on slowing down anytime soon. In fact, just days before her 100th birthday on Jan. 4, she was looking forward to a gathering with her religious sisters and attending several other "engagements" to celebrate with her friends.
Sister M. Pauletta's life journey began in Dieterich, where she was baptized at Immaculate Conception Church. When she was just 12 years old her father, Frank, was killed in an accident while he was "completing an act of charity for a priest." A few years later, that priest (the late Father Daniel Doyle) helped the future Dominican find a place as a boarder at Sacred Heart Academy. She graduated from the Academy on June 9, 1932 and entered the convent on July 2 of that year. She made profession as a Dominican Sister of Springfield in 1935.
At just 18 years old, she began teaching fifth-graders at Cathedral. It was a different time then, when young sisters taught school before they had actually completed their college degrees. (Sister M. Pauletta subsequently earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and English education from Loyola University in Chicago and a master's degree in education and administrative supervision, counseling and guidance from the University of Illinois.)
She has fond memories of instructing those first children so long ago. "In those days, we had to ask permission to do things. So, I had asked for permission to borrow a briefcase so that I could carry my books (to and from school) but was told (by her superior) that I didn't need a briefcase. She told me to wrap them in newspaper," Sister M. Pauletta remembers. "So every day at 3 o'clock, the children would wrap my books up in newspaper so I could take them home."
In 1948, Sister M. Pauletta left Cathedral to become the first principal at the newly-founded Little Flower School, which was for a while housed in a Quonset hut that served as the first church. She was also the eighth-grade teacher. Students sat on kneelers in the Quonset hut and used the seats as desks. Four of her first female students at Little Flower became Dominicans, she says.
After 17 years at Little Flower, Sister M. Pauletta was sent to Washington, D.C., to study the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Later she established religious education classes from preschool to high school in St. Thomas Parish in Crystal Lake and then went on to Duluth, Minn., to act as a principal and a Director of Religious Education. She went to San Diego for one year and then came back to Illinois to start the religious education program at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Chatham, working with the late Father Marty O'Hara. While at Chatham, she suffered one of her many broken hip injuries and returned to the convent to recuperate.
After she recuperated, Sister M. Pauletta began a long-lasting service that continued until she was well into her late 90s. She ministered at Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems (ILLCAAAP) in the Springfield office and provided inspiration and guidance to those who crossed her path. She also served on the ILLCAAAP board and helped organize their annual meeting. Finally, she was involved with PORA — Prostitute's Options, Referrals and Alternatives — a Springfield agency that helps survivors of prostitution.
In 2011, Sister M. Pauletta was inducted into the Sacred Heart-Griffin Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame committee selected her as its inductee to recognize the impact she has had on students and families. Morever, each year several students whose families could not otherwise afford to attend SHG are able to go to school there because they are awarded the Sister Mary Pauletta Overbeck Scholarship.
Although she has helped and guided so many, Sister M. Pauletta says it is God's providence that has brought her this far in life. "I am supposed to be here. When I was a junior at Sacred Heart Academy, I was going home for Thanksgiving with a friend. We had stopped and when we got back in the car, we had just changed places. We had a car accident and the girl who was in my spot was killed.
"Later in my life I was in a boat that capsized. There I was in my long habit and my coat and without a life jacket. I couldn't swim but once again, I lived," she says. "I've also broken my hip five times. So, yes, I know that I'm supposed to be here."
Sister M. Pauletta also attributes some of her longevity to her mother, Kathryn. "At 92, my mother was managing a 27-unit apartment building (in California) all by herself. She prayed that when God was ready, he would take her suddenly and that is what he did." Today, Sister M. Pauletta has outlived her two sisters, but has three nephews and a niece who live in "varying areas of the country."
She considers herself very lucky to have many loyal former students and friends who visit her, take her on outings and give gifts in her honor. "I can't tell you how loyal and faithful my former students have been and also the people who I met through ILLCAAAP. And there have been so many Protestants who have been so good to me," she says. "My work with the Protestants has been such a blessing."
Sister M. Pauletta says that even at 100, she isn't ready to take it easy. She gets up at 6 a.m. each day and always takes part in Morning Prayer. She keeps busy with prayer, activities and meals during the day. "They always joke with me and tell me to slow down, but I don't. I use a walker sometimes, but when I use a cane I can get around a lot faster.
"We have Evening Prayer and then after dinner we play Back Alley Bridge … . So yes, I'm very mentally awake; sometimes I think I am too awake."
Lately, Sister M. Pauletta says she has been waking up with "so many new thoughts." "I think I've become God's secretary," she says with a chuckle. "He wakes me up in the middle of the night and so I write down my thoughts."
However, whether it is day or night, Sister M. Pauletta feels blessed by the life she's been living as a Springfield Dominican. "You know, they always say life is what you make it, but I say life is how you take it," she concludes. "I don't know how long God will give me, but I am so grateful. Yet I'm ready anytime. Right now I am so grateful and so happy and God has blessed me so much. I am so happy."