By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sister Madeline

READING - Students of Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Madeline "Blossom" Stubbers, a teacher at the old St. Xavier Commercial High School downtown, were still regularly bringing her the candy turtles she loved - right up until she died at Mount Notre Dame Health Center on Oct. 1.

Sister Madeline, 96, taught bookkeeping, literature and religion at the school from 1942 until 1959.

When Sister Madeline entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1925, she professed her aspiration to be like St. Therese of Lisieux, known as the "Little Flower." Little Flower's beauty came from the ordinariness of her life. The sisters told Sister Madeline that she could end up as a blossom herself. The nickname stuck.

She spent nearly 50 years teaching at the old St. Paul, St. Henry, St. Mary, and St. Xavier schools in Cincinnati, in addition to St. Xavier Commercial High School.

She also taught at Julienne High School (now Chaminade-Julienne) in Dayton and Notre Dame High School in Chicago.

Sister Madeline left teaching in 1977 to become director of occupational therapy at Mount Notre Dame Convent. She moved to Mount Notre Dame Health Center after retirement in 1990 and lived there until her death.

Services have been held. Interment was in the sisters' cemetery.

Memorials: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Retirement Fund, 701 E. Columbia Ave., Cincinnati 45215.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com