Ramsey County History – Winter 2009: “The Teen Years at Our Lady of Peace (OLP)”

Growing Up in St Paul: The Teen Years at Our Lady of Peace (OLP)
Author: Susanne Sebesta Heimbuch

This article focuses on memories of a schoolgirl starting in 1959. Heimbuch graduated from St. Mark’s Grade School and enrolled in Our Lady of Peace (OLP), a much larger high school established in 1951 at 875 Summit Avenue with a thousand students. She did well and became an honor student. She lost a good friend because the nuns told her to remain with others in the college track while also trying to “dainty-fy” her. She includes memories of events, such as her first dance at St. Thomas Academy and the mother-daughter teas. There is some information on the family’s life, including coping with a father who had a drinking problem. Heimbuch and her friends partied in each other’s homes and took a memorable trip to New York and the East Coast. Heimbuch worked part time at the rectory for St. Luke’s parish to earn spending money. A number of other reminiscences make this memoir very insightful. There is also a long sidebar on Our Lady of Peace’s High School building and what happened to it after the institution closed and was sold to the William Mitchell College of Law in 1975.
PDF of Heimbach article