I was born April 3, 1941 to Miriam Brodbeck and Joseph Henry Lammers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My parents had two names picked out—Michael Joseph and Stephen Joseph. Several weeks before my birth my father brought home a toy train; my mother asked, “What if it is a girl”? He then brought home a doll with the name Barbara Jo. I was named after the doll. Three years later, we moved to Omaha, Nebraska where my sister, Mary Ellen, was born. In all of our moving we never lived near any of the rest of our family.

Sister Barbara Joseph with the doll she was named after

Because of my father’s work, we moved every few years. I started grade school in St. Louis. It is ironic that in the first grade, one report card had me failing reading and another had me failing arithmetic. I remember being grilled with flash cards in reading and arithmetic every night after supper. When I was in the 4^th grade, we moved back to Milwaukee and I went to St. Bernard School where we had the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. We lived about three blocks from school and passed the library on the way. One of the first things my mother did was get me a library card, and that was the beginning of my love of reading.

Young Barbara Jo was always willing to chat with people and never knew a stranger

During that time, a cousin entered the Sinsinawa Dominicans. The day before she entered, her family spent the night with us in Milwaukee. I remember when they left the next day, watching them go, Mary Ellen said when she grew up, she was going to do that, and I thought, “You won’t but I will.” That was my first thought about vocation.

Sister Barbara Joseph sharing her love of reading with her baby sister, Mary Ellen

After my first year in high school we moved to Memphis, TN, where I went to Sacred Heart High School, staffed by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

During my senior year, one of the Sisters said something to me about having a vocation. I told her I knew I did, but it wasn’t to Nazareth. She did not push but did encourage me to pray about it. When I told my parents, they were not happy and thought I should wait a few years. Nevertheless, I did write to Sinsinawa Dominicans for more information.

When it was time for me to ask a priest to write a letter for me to Sinsinawa, someone else asked him to write for her to Nazareth. Sometime later, we found out he did not write for either one of us. I told him if it would make things easier just to write one letter for both of us to Nazareth. So much for discernment! I did receive a letter from Nazareth telling me I had been accepted; my parents, however, were still saying no. After some lengthy conversations they agreed to let me enter the community if I promised I would come home if I was not happy.

I graduated from high school on May 30, 1959; we buried my grandmother on May 31 in Peoria, IL; and I entered the novitiate September 8 of that year. I did not find the novitiate terribly hard. I did miss my family but because of my experience of moving around so often, I think I was able to adjust rather easily. Also, there were three others from my high school class who entered at the same time, Mary Virginia Cohn (Sister Frederick, who left in the early 70s), Paula Schmidt, who left as a postulant, and Betty Fracchia who died in October, 2019. I received the habit July 18, 1960, and the name Sister Barbara Joseph. Two years, later I made vows on July 19, 1962.

Sister Barbara Joseph Lammers

Our class was the first class to be told when we entered, that we would not be sent on a mission until we had finished our undergraduate degree. After making vows, I found out I was to major in mathematics and minor in chemistry. Because I did not begin studies in my major until after vows, I stayed at Nazareth for an extra year, as did all of us who were going into secondary education. This was a gift for me as I learned a great deal about living in a mixed age and ministry community.

In August, 1966 I went out on my first mission at Archbishop Williams High School, Braintree, MA. where I taught Algebra I and geometry. I continued teaching math, chemistry and physics in various high schools for ten years.

In 1968, I received a National Science Foundation grant to study Integrated Physics and Chemistry at the University of Portland, Oregon. That began a four-year summer program. It was a great experience studying with other science teachers from across the country. We graduated in August of 1971. I made many friends there, and continue to keep in contact with several of them.

Sister Barbara Joseph Lammers

In the summer of 1976, I moved to Bruce, Mississippi, with Sister Margaret Maria Coon. We were in a county with three active Catholic families. Because there was no Catholic parish in our county, each of the three families was associated with a different parish in adjoining counties based on where we lived. We were involved in a ministry of presence – to let people know Catholics and to share something of our faith. I also served as a substitute teacher at the local high school and drove patients to Memphis for the county health service.

The Lammers family.
L-R: Mary Ellen, Miriam (mother), Sister Barbara Joseph, and Joseph (father)

After two years, I knew that was not where my gifts lay and was in process of discerning where to go next when I was invited to consider teaching at Donnelly College in Kansas City, KS. My mission at Donnelly was shaped by the fact that most of the students I worked with were from Iran. This was at the time of the overthrow of the Shah, and even though the students seemed to be in favor of that, they were not at all in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini. They wanted a new democracy. Most of the Iranian and other Middle Eastern students, were Moslems and believed you could be true to your religion in the modern world. All of the Moslem women at Donnelly dressed in Western style clothing.

One day one of my students, a young man, my age, asked if he could speak to me in private. I did not know what this was about but I said yes. We met, and he started by saying he knew that God was important in my life and I had dedicated myself to God by the way I lived, but I was following the wrong way. If I really wanted to follow God in all honesty and truthfulness, I should convert to Islam, he said. Needless to say, I was more than taken back by this comment. We talked for a while about the place of religion and God in our respective lives and ended up saying we would pray for each other to be faithful to the call of God for each of us. I believe this conversation has had a major effect on my relation to God and my realization that God has been revealed to people in many different ways.

After three years at Donnelly, I came back to Nazareth as the first director of Global Ministries and Executive Secretary for the Corporate Responsibility Committee. This position gave me a chance to meet and work with many people in the area and across the country who were involved in peace and justice work.

Sisters Angela Wethington, Barbara Joseph Lammers, Josephine Foley, and Eleanor Martin counting votes for the Nazareth Province Provincial in 1982 (Sister Agnes Crone was re-elected at that time.)

In 1985, I moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to be with my parents. My mother was in bad physical health, as well as having dementia, and my father needed someone to help care for her. Not long after I got there, I received a call from the principal of St. Joseph School where my mother had taught for many years, asking if I would be willing to be a part time math teacher for sixth, seventh and eighth grades. I said yes and ended up teaching several students whose parents my mother had taught. For some time, I was known as Mrs. Lammers’ daughter before I became known in my own right.

Sisters Barbara Joseph Lammers, Ann Whittaker, Ann Murphy, and Mary Collette Crone participating in a 1982 Peace Rally

During that time, I found out that the University of South Carolina had an accredited library science program, and I asked to study to become a librarian. It was something I had wanted to do since I was in the Juniorate and had a duty helping in the main library at Nazareth. I received a work study scholarship and worked in the library school computer lab. After graduating I was offered a job by the in the university’s science library department as a reference librarian.

At the end of March, 1989, my mother died after having been in a nursing home for over three years. My Father lived for another two and a half years and died in early November of 1991. I resigned in April 1992. Although I liked the work, I needed to be back with community. I spent that summer at Nazareth after making a 30-day retreat. In August I heard there was a position at Memphis Public Library. Because of my science background, I was what they needed for the department. I was there until April 1997. During those years I lived with Sister Susan Gatz and Sister Mary Ellen Doyle, the Regional and Associate Regional for the Southern Region, until their term was up.

I had decided I needed a sabbatical and was in the process of looking at various programs when I received a call asking if I would be willing to take the position of Associate Regional for the Southern Region. Sister Anita Hayden, who had been elected to that position, was dying of cancer and had resigned. In April 1997, I moved to Lexington, KY, to live and work with Sister Anne Rita Mauck. One of the high points of this time was the chance to visit our sisters in Belize and Nicaragua.

Sister Rose Marie Kirwan, Sister Barbara Joseph Lammers, and Sister Paschal Maria Fernicola folding sheets in Placencia, Belize in March 1998

As we were beginning to discern new leadership for the province, I had allowed my name to be submitted for discernment. Several days before the discernment was to start, I had a doctor’s visit. I was feeling terrible but thought it was just because I was tired and needed some quiet rest. Before the discernment started, I was not sure what was wrong, but did know it was more than tiredness. I went into the process and stayed through prayer and the beginning of discernment, then told the others I would withdraw because it seemed unfair to continue without knowing the nature of my excessive tiredness. I did not know what the problem was but thought it was unfair to continue.

When I got home, there was a call from the doctor saying I needed to have some follow up work done. Mary Romelfanger, who was with me, called the doctor to see what the problem was. She ended up taking me to St. Joseph Hospital where I was admitted and diagnosed with malaria. We could not figure out where the malaria had come from as I had taken the medicine correctly when I was in Central America. Almost a week later, I was released to go home and take it easy. Elections were held in early November, and the new team would take over the first of January.

I took some time off to heal and care for myself. In October, I went to India for a meeting and Global Exchange. I was blessed to be able to participate in a program at the Papal Seminary for a six-week term in Puna, India.

When I returned to the States in early February, I began work in the bookstore at Catherine Spalding Center, a job I really enjoyed. It gives me great pleasure to help someone find a book that helps meet their current needs or interests. After several years, I left that position and began working in the library at the Marian Corrections Institute near Lebanon, KY for eight hours a week. I could see such a position needed more time but they were not willing to give it to me.

Sister Barbara Joseph Lammers with her sister, Mary Ellen

During the summer of 2005, Sister Maggie Cooper asked me to join the Sisters in Belize as librarian at St. John College in Belize City. It did not take me long to realize that was something I would like to do. So, after discernment, I moved to Belize October 1, 2005, to begin work at St. John.

I stayed there until January 2010 when I returned to Nazareth to have both knees replaced. The first knee replacement was in March, and the second the end of July.

After healing and physical therapy, I began to look around to see where I could be of help. I began by helping in the Corporate Responsibility office for several hours a week, then went to the library to see how I could help there. After working in both areas for a while, I ended up with full responsibility for both places. I resigned from the Corporate Responsibility office August 31, 2021, and now devote most of my time to the library. I still love helping people find just the right book they want or need at the time.

I’ve been asked what was my favorite and my least favorite mission. I can’t really say. Each place I have been has had things I liked, people and things that really stretched me and helped me to see new ways of looking at life. And each has had aspects I did not like but still called me to grow by looking at situations and people from a different perspective.

Each mission has helped me to see how God is continually acting in my life and in the world around me. I am a better person for all of these varied experiences. Reading, of all kinds, and prayer have always been important in my life. I am grateful for both these gifts and the people and places that have nourished them.

I am more than grateful for my years as an SCN. The decision to have the recommendation sent to Nazareth was a gift for which I am forever grateful. My life and experiences have been full of great blessings for which I often thank God. Among the many blessings of my life is this one: In recalling all these experiences, I have been fortunate to spend little time on painful things, thus freeing me to celebrate all the good things with which I have been blessed.

Barbara Joseph Lammers, SCN
March 21, 2023

Interested in reading more Marie Menard Committee stories?
Click here: https://nazareth.org/tag/marie-menard/