DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Rio Grande City, in Starr County, the year was 1884, and a man with a plan was about to set something in motion that would outlast just about anyone who doubted him. The Reverend R.
M. Olivier, O.M.I., looked around at this corner of Texas and decided what it needed, more than just about anything else, was a school. So he did what any determined man of the cloth would do: he asked the Sisters of the Incarnate Word, over in San Antonio, to come make it happen.
Now, you might expect an organization to send a delegation, a committee, maybe a scouting party. They sent three nuns. Just three.
And here's where the story gets interesting, because by 1885, those three women were standing in a three-room schoolhouse teaching one hundred day students. You heard that right. One hundred children.
Three rooms. One year. Don't let anybody tell you big things can't come from a modest start.
The work kept on, the way good work tends to. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament arrived in 1900 to carry the teaching forward. Then in 1920, the Sisters of Mercy came to take their turn.
And the mission didn't stop there; in 1985, the School Sisters of Notre Dame stepped in and took up the charge. Four different communities of sisters, across more than a century, and through all of it, dedicated laity stood right alongside them, helping build what the marker calls a strong Christian and educational foundation. The church and the community have kept their arms around this school the whole way through.
That's the thing about something built on that kind of ground: it doesn't just survive. It endures.
What the marker says
In 1884 the Rev. R. M. Olivier, O.M.I., asked the Sisters of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio to start a school in Rio Grande City. Three nuns were sent here and by 1885 were teaching 100 day students in a 3-room school. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament came to teach in 1900, followed by the Sisters of Mercy in 1920. The school sisters of Notre Dame undertook the mission of the school in 1985. Throughout its history, dedicated laity joined the sisters in providing a strong Christian and educational foundation. It enjoys support from the church and community. (1997)