Sister M. Imelda Wallace
Article Archive
A collection of articles, transcriptions, and images.
Images and transcriptions concerning Sister Mary Imelda Wallace
From The American Catholic Who's who, Volume 5; Volumes 7-9; Volumes 11-20
Notice to the City of Flagstaff, AZ of Sister's death
’03 Graduate
Of ASC Here
Heart Victim
Notice of the death of Sister
Imelda Wallace, 1903 graduate of
Arizona State College at Flag-
staff, was received by President
L. A. Eastburn of the college from
Mother M. Felicitas, superior gen-
eral, Sisters of Loretto at the
Foot of the Cross, Loretto, Ky.
Mother M. Felicitas wrote:
“When our dear Sister Imelda
Wallace visited Flagstaff in the
spring of 1955 she was given spe-
cial recognition by the State
Teachers College where she had
studied in the early years of the
century.
“For this reason we felt you
should be notified of Sister’s death
which occurred here at the Moth-
erhouse on April 15. Sister suffer-
ed a severe heart attack in July,
1956, from which she never fully
recovered.
“As her girlhood home, Flag-
staff held fond memories for Sis-
ter Imelda. We feel sure that
Flagstaff is proud of its former
citizen for her 48 years of self-
sacrificing devotion to others; for
her many years in the classroom,
instilling into the hearts and
minds of thousands of youths
principles of right living, and for
the use she made of her gifted
pen. In addition to works of fic-
tion. Sister wrote many books for
children and at the time of her
death was working on a number
of series for God’s little ones.”
When Sister Imelda graduated
from Northern Arizona Normal
School, as the college was then
called, she won first prize in es-
say writing. Since that time she
wrote many books. One of them,
“The Outlaws of Ravenhurst” was
a Pulitzer prize winner.
Sister Mary Imelda Honored in Flagstaff, AZ
Books donated in her memory and in memory of the teaching of the Sisters of Loretto.
Literary Award—Sister Ann Rita, Superior of Nativity School of Flag-
staff, presents copy of “Outlaws of Ravenhurst” to Richard C Quick of
NAU library staff. Also holding novel written by Sister Mary Imelda is
Herbert H. Metzger of Pioneer Historical Society. Far right is James
Frase, director of special collections at NAU.
Nun’s Books Are Gifts
Pulitzer Prize-winning Novel presented
In Flagstaff in Memory of Sister Mary Imelda
By BILL NIXON
Norther Arizona Bureau
FLAGSTAFF—The late Sister
Mary Imelda, a Roman Catholic
nun and member of the Sisters
of Loretto, left more on earth
than a lifetime of educational
and religious teachings.
Her literary works were
highly acclaimed by critics,
particularly “Outlaws of Raven-
hurst.” a Pulitzer Prize-win-
ning novel.
THIS WEEK in Flagstaff the
daughter of a northern Arizona
pioneer was remembered at a
special ceremony in the Nativity
School, where she taught many
years. Copies of her Pulitzer
winner were presented to the
Pioneer Historical Society here
and to Northern Arizona Uni-
versity.
The books came from the
Sisters of Loretto motherhouse
in Loretto, Ky., at the request
of Mrs. Mary Sweitzer of Flag-
staff.
“I felt that Sister Imelda’s
books should be on library
shelves in Flagstaff, a memorial
to her,” Mrs. Sweitzer said.
SHE CONCLUDED, “I wanted
Flagstaff to have the books be-
fore the sisters left here.”
The Sisters of Loretto, after
67 years of teaching elementary
age children in this city, are
withdrawing effective tomorrow
when the 1965-66 school year
ends.
They will be replaced at the
Flagstaff Catholic school by the
Dominican Sisters of Adrian,
Mich., whose members are rsi-
dent teachers in Winslow and
Kingman.
SISTER Imelda, who com-
pleted 48 years as a Sister of
Loretto, was born Lorabel Wal-
lace in Michigan in 1884. She
came to Flagstaff with her
parents before the turn of the
century.
Born into a Protestant faith,
the young woman became inter-
ested in Catholicism in Septem-
ber 1898, when she attended the
funeral of a family friend. Later
she became acquainted with
Sister Mary Victor, one of Flag-
staff’s first Catholic teachers.
She graduated from North-
ern Arizona Normal School (now
NAU) in 1903. While attending
the Flagstaff college she was
awarded first prize for essay
writing, a preface to her later
accomplishments as an author.
AFTER HER graduation from
college, she taught school at
Congress in Yavapai County,
south of Prescott. It was there
in 1905 she was baptized a
Catholic by a missionary. Three
years later she traveled to
Kentucky to enter the novitiate
of the Sisters of Loretto.
She was confirmed Mary
Imelda on May 10, 1909. The
nun devoted her life to teaching
and writing. In addition to “Out-
laws of Ravenhurst” a story
of bravery with a Scottish set-
ting her other novel was “Lure
of the West.”
Sister Imelda wrote many
books for children, including
a prayer book. In 1941 she was
listed in the international blue
book of “Who’s Who in the
World.”
Literary Award—Sister Ann Rita, Superior of Nativity School of Flag-
staff, presents copy of “Outlaws of Ravenhurst” to Richard C Quick of
NAU library staff. Also holding novel written by Sister Mary Imelda is
Herbert H. Metzger of Pioneer Historical Society. Far right is James
Frase, director of special collections at NAU.
Sister Mary Imelda, then Lorabel Wallace, for her graduation
Sister's appearance in Arizona in Literature
L. M. Wallace
Lorabel Maria Wallace, Sister M. Imelda Wallace [1884- ], was born
on September 6 1884, two years after the Michigan forest fire, on a little
new-made farm in the “back-slashing” of the primeval forest of Sanalac county,
Michigan. In 1888 her family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. She was educated
in the public schools, and was graduated from the two-years course of the
Arizona State Teachers College (then Normal School) in 1903. In 1908 she
left Flagstaff and became a convert and entered the Catholic order of the
Sisters of Loretto.
She has an “easy pen and a ready and vivid imagination.” Her first novel,
The Outlaws of Ravenhurst, 1923, planned while she was a students at the
college at Flagstaff and advised in the work by Mrs. E. C. Sliker (then Miss
Fanny Bury), is a story of the Catholics in Scotland and Maryland. The book
has “dignity and beauty that will be of enduring value.” The Lure of the West,
1924, is original, individual, and non-conventional. “Her treatment of heredity
may or may not be scientific; yet it grips one.” Gifted Sister Imelda not only
teaches her regular classes in parochial schools, but she also edits an interest-
ing magazine for these schools called Chen Min Zin and a text for grades one,
two, and three called Loretto Series Language Busy Work. Her present address
is St, Joseph’s School, Auburn, Nebraska.