Evolution of the University of St. Francis

Transcript of video (dated June, 2005):

I’m Sr. Julie Ann Borer, I worked in the kitchen in the summertime with Sr. Dora, Sr. Emilita, and Sr. Justa, and that was during the summer school session.

Sr. Dora ran a kitchen that was so professional, it was a no nonsense kitchen. We had to do everything quiet, right on the dot, and have everything ready right on time. She never missed serving anything that wasn’t on time, any dinner or meal that wasn’t on time. She was very professional.

We served in the summer time; we had 2 or 3 dining rooms. We served family style. We served in 4 to a set. So that meant we had maybe about 40 sets going in this one dining room, 30 in the other one, 26 in the other one. Then we ran the cafeteria for anyone else that was not assigned to a dining room.

Dora had to have her dishes hot. The food had to be hot. It had to look attractive. She always liked color combinations, everything couldn’t be green. It had to have a little color in it. Her meat was always perfect. She loved little rare meat and her roast had to be just perfect. She would get up at 4 o’ clock in the morning for her roasts and put them in her oven. It was just perfect.

Sr. Emilita was one person who was more or less the salad lady. She made everything for the salad. Her tossed salads had to have everything in. Sr. Dora was a very confident person and Sr. Emilita was not that confident. She always had to have someone approve her stuff. We’d always tease her and tell her, Emmy it’s great, it’s great, it tastes great.

Sr. Justa was the baker. Now she was up at 4 o’clock in the morning. She would make her homemade bread, her pies; her apple pie was one of her favorite pies that we made. And we’d make like 30 or 40 pies in a day.

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We never bought bread; she made her own bread all the time. Her sweet rolls we always had to do that. I didn’t have too much to do with the baking, except just help eat it. Her homemade cookies, she loved making homemade cookies. One of her favorite desserts was cream puffs with her cream filling. It was just delicious. Let’s see, what else did we do?

But after, we were always finished with the meal in the afternoon, we had maybe 1 or 2 hours off before we served supper. In that time, we could go and say our prayers or take a little rest or have a little fun. In the evenings, we always had fun.

We had little parties amongst ourselves and we’d go out on campus and have a great time. But while we were in the kitchen, there was no nonsense. But after work was all done, Sr. Dora was one of the most delightful persons to talk with and visit with, very intelligent, well read. Before she came to the convent, she always told us she worked for one of those wealthy people who had to have everything just so you know. She was their chef and she really took all that knowledge and brought it to St. Francis there.

I don’t know if Dora ever worked on a mission or not, you know a little house. I only knew her as long as she had been at the College of St. Francis. She just was so up on everything. She never used a recipe, never saw her once use a recipe. She could do it by taste and flavor, and everything was just so tasty and flavorful. She was just a delight to work for.