Rose Philippine Duchesne Award
June 14, 2014
Jeanne Burke O’Fallon ’69
Presented by Jane Cannon 
Twenty-six years ago this summer Rose Philippine Duchesne was canonized a saint by Pope now-Saint John Paul II. That same year, in our hometown joy, we embraced the proud legacy of our school’s foundress by establishing an award that would recognize alums who had adopted and reflected some characteristics of that holy woman.
The first 23 of those recipients were surprise winners—which can be a rather nerve-wracking business for the presenters. The GOOD thing about those surprises, however, was that no one had a chance to question our choices in advance. There was none of that “Who, ME?” incredulity to deal with. People just came forward—amazed—and weathered the applause. Now that honorees are warned in advance of their upcoming moment of fame, we must deal with their doubts and add the task of reassuring to our spring agenda. This year’s recipient specifically had a new argument to consider: “but I attended the Academy for only one year!” This is true. But I don’t know about the rest of you here tonight; for my money it was almost worth the closure of City House in St. Louis for us to be able to claim Jeanne Burke as a high school senior here in the 1968–69 school year. And I think the Class of ’69 would agree. This, mind you, is a class which—uniquely—can claim two other members as previous winners of the Duchesne Award; but they have persisted in their repeated nominations of the “one-year wonder” who joined them back then so as to finish her Sacred Heart education in another Sacred Heart School. (Actually, I like to think that this two-school background gave Jeanne a unique blend of the qualities that Sacred Heart nuns have been trying to instill in young people since St. Madeleine Sophie founded the order 214 years ago and since St. Philippine planted her cross in this ground 196 years ago.) And then, as though that weren’t enough, Jeanne went on to yet another Sacred Heart school (Maryville) for her bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in theology.
Beginning work at Villa Duchesne in 1976 as Assistant Director of Students under Sisters Barbara Moreau and then Claude Demoustier, Jeanne dealt with Sacred Heart girls for five years and learned from two very different women how a mother’s love binds them to a house that becomes their home. In 1986 she moved into another department at Villa handling publications and assisting in Public Relations communications. This multi-faceted responsibility found her editing a monthly newsletter for parents, producing Villa Views in its entirety (planning, writing, photography and layout) and writing the school’s history for Villa’s 60th anniversary in 1989 (which entailed staging a 60th anniversary gala as well).
All of this, I think, was boot camp for the real career that Jeanne O’Fallon embarked upon in 1994 when she assumed the title of Executive Secretary of the Associated Alumnae and Alumni of the Sacred Heart (AASH). For the next 17 years she would turn that office into the hub of communication for the thousands of people who claimed their roots in a great variety of Sacred Heart schools across the United States. With dogged persistence (but with ever gentle words) she reminded us of our white-glove past while deftly introducing us to an online future. When she mused in her retirement speech at the 2011 AASH Conference in Miami that she was sure she could attach a name to every single face in that crowded hotel ballroom, she wasn’t kidding. She had worked with so many of them—sometimes correcting the snafus of their reservation glitches, sometimes finding a compatible roommate for them to lessen their cost of attending, sometimes putting out the fires that are inevitably kindled when some take their leadership roles too seriously.
Jeanne O’Fallon has probably attended more funerals than an undertaker. And for many of those she was the eulogist. Who else knew so much about each one of us; and—even better—could say it in a way that was gracious, reserved and elegant. She can tell you the genealogy of Sacred Heart families here and abroad since her work was not simply among the Sacred Heart alumni in St. Louis. She threw her mantle of loving concern over the whole Network of schools—past and present—bringing that knowledge to a landmark fruition in the publication of the oeuvre, appropriately named Journey of the Heart. Such an ambitious undertaking this book became (in celebration of the bicentennial of the founding of the Society in 1800) that it nearly didn’t get out the door in time for the big event. But now, in its second printing, it has been used in several Sacred Heart schools and at Network meetings as a textbook for the teaching of Sacred Heart traditions.
In the years that she ran the AASH Office on Spoede Road, Jeanne O’Fallon’s title transitioned to AASH National Office Director; and, not surprisingly, her duties were multiplied—not so much, I suspect, by the dictates of the organization as by her own indomitable sense of doing the right thing—at all times and for all people. Overseeing the input of more than 50,000 alums’ information into a database would seem like task enough to fill one’s “part-time” hours, but there was the ongoing communication with the AASH Board members, the various association presidents and the schools’ alumnae/alumni directors. Website and fundraising oversight, helping to edit and proofread the Esprit de Coeur newsletter, and collaboration with the RSCJ Provincial Team and Network of Sacred Heart Schools are just a few of the duties listed in the job description that was drawn up in time to search for a replacement of this human dynamo in 2010 prior to her retirement. What a beautiful tribute to her years of exquisite leadership in this role when the AASH Board chose to rename the existing AASH Essay Contest (established to encourage good writing among students in Sacred Heart schools). It became the Jeanne Burke O’Fallon Essay Contest.
It will probably not surprise those of you who don’t already know it if I tell you that Jeanne Burke married a Sacred Heart alumnus. (Who else would do?) Although there was not an army of eligible ones back in the ’70s, Barat Hall had produced a modest number of candidates; and, according to this connoisseur herself, Dennis O’Fallon is “wonderful, wise and witty.” The O’Fallons have two grown sons: Dennis, Jr., who lives in New York, and Joseph in St. Louis, and one grandson, Wallace Fogarty O’Fallon, who is seven months old.
With my experienced eye, I have long viewed Jeanne Burke O’Fallon as the yardstick by whom all other Sacred Heart alums might be measured. So, when we put out our ballots for voting for this award this past winter, I felt that my opinion was ratified by one of our members who emailed back: “If I could cast more than one vote, all of my votes would go for Jeanne Burke O’Fallon.”
In the words of a woman who did not throw compliments around extravagantly, we read this testimonial to Jeanne in a thank you letter that Sister Pat Steppe wrote to her in 1982 in gratitude for her work as President of the Alumnae Association during the difficult years after the high school closed. (Jeanne tells me this is one of the few precious messages she has kept—and she must have received many over the years—because it meant so much to her to receive it.) “To you fell the task of changing course, opening doors. The delicacy and determination always characteristic of Jeanne Burke was divinely ordered; and God has again seen fit to bless us abundantly.”
Those of you who have been lucky enough to receive a letter, a note—even an email—from Jeanne O’Fallon, know that her time-honored way of closing is “in the Heart.” That is how she connects with us and we with her. And tonight we all join in saluting her for her example of a life lived, fully and beautifully, “in the Heart.” Congratulations, Jeanne!
by Jane Cannon, Alumni Director
