Biography

Sister Jane was born at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, the daughter of Charles Wright and Aileen (Vickery) Freeland. Her parents had just returned from the Philippines, where her father was an Army chaplain, and the family moved with him to various posts in Texas. She and her older sister, Elizabeth, were home schooled through high school. Then Sister Jane attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1933 with a degree in music.

Sister Jane planned to teach music, but when she arrived as a lay teacher at St. John Baptist school in Mendham, New Jersey, a Latin teacher was needed. So she learned Latin and Greek from her father, taught those subjects, along with music and history.

In 1939 she became a novitiate in St. John Baptist, the order that taught at the school. She later served as the School's headmistress. She was noted as a gifted teacher by her colleagues and her students. She had a love of learning that she pursued graduate work at Oxford University and the University of the South in Tennessee, and a doctorate in medieval studies at Rutgers University.

She died in 2004 at 93 in Amherst, Iowa.

(Adopted from "Sister Jane Freeland, 93, medieval scholar", Boston.com News Obituaries.

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