recite their lessons. Kathleen’s favourite subject was arithmetic, a subject

in which she would continue to excel throughout her academic career.

She got along well with her teachers, all nuns from the Congregation of

the Sisters of St. Martha.

She walked to school every day, and at noon would make the trek home

for lunch. If it was raining, or during the winter months, she was driven

by her brothers Earl or Gerald. In the event of a storm, someone would

be there to pick her up. Sometimes during the winter she would join

with other students catching a ride on a sleigh which would be passing

through the village.

During the war a Canadian fighter plane

fiom the airbase in Snmmerside crashed in afield near Kinkora. Standing on the wing of the plane are fiom left to right, Kathleen, her brother Earl, Kay Farmer, Bernadette Mulligan and Edna Gallant

The school at Kinkora was progressive and offered a superior education system. Irish Roman Catholics had always believed in the importance of education as a way of opening up new opportunities which had been denied them in the old country. Kinkora was the first rural district in Prince Edward Island to upgrade its school to grammar status in 1871. The Sisters of Saint Martha began staffing the school in 1921. The Sisters of Saint Martha was a relatively new congregation. It was established in Prince Edward Island by Bishop Henry O’Leary in 1916 to serve in a variety

of ways the Roman Catholics who made up 45 percent of the Island’s population. In their

first decade, 97 percent of the entrants were from Island communities

and 80 percent were Irish (Kathleen’s two sisters would later join the

congregation.)

62 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC