Centenary 2020
Michelle reached out to us with a story about her mum Patricia Rice (nee Conway). This is an excerpt from Mrs Rice’s eulogy who sadly passed away in 2018. But stories like this keep our school’s history alive! Thank you Michelle.
“Early in 1920, the Sisters of Mercy established a school in the Parish of St Kieran’s and Mum’s Dad and his sisters Ronnie and Kath were amongst the first sixteen children enrolled in the school. Mum also attended St Kieran’s Catholic School and she was quickly recognised as being the daughter/niece of the original foundation pupils.
When mum first started school, her Granddad Martin Conway, used to ride his horse from Osborne Park to their house in Joondanna to pick her up and take her to school.
He would park himself under a tree at 3.00 pm each day to take her home as well. After a while, Mr Harper, who was a family friend and their local milkman, used to take her and sister, Gloria, to school on his milk cart.
He would also come from Osborne Park to pick them up and take them home too. Many years later when her sister Roslyn was in high school Sister Mary Vianey, the principal, commented that she remembered Mum coming to school on a horse with her Granddad.”
Patricia is pictured in the third row, third from the right with a clip in her hair.
