Elizabethton celebrates 100 years of Catholicism ther Baldinger’s leadership. Father Baldinger left St. Elizabeth in 1952 and was succeeded by Father Albert Siener. St. Elizabeth School existed for nearly 20 years, was staffed by the Sisters of Mercy, and provided education for grades one through eight. Classes first met in the house at 410 Daytona Place before they moved to a gray stone house at 400 W. G. St. in 1938. The school was moved to the basement of the present church after its May 1949 dedication. Because of a decline in enrollment, St. Elizabeth School closed in 1954, and students began attending St. Mary School in Johnson City. Also in 1954, Father Siener was reassigned, and St. Elizabeth lost its status as an independent parish, again becoming a mission of St. Mary, with Dominican priests commuting to and from St. Elizabeth. St. Elizabeth regained its parish status in 1982, and in 1985, with the appointment of Father Charles Johnston, OP, parishioners built a rectory next to the church. As Mrs. Duncan and longtime fellow St. Elizabeth members Richard Barker and his sister, Debbie Alexander, recalled the history of Catholicism in Carter County, Mrs. Duncan remembered a Father Carter as the first priest to serve St. Elizabeth at the then-converted house with a school. “The first Catholic Mass was celebrated in Elizabethton 100 years ago on Sept. 9, 1923. It was celebrated at the home of John Tierney on North Main Street in the old part of town in an area called Cat Island. That area got its name because in 1901 we had a significant flood on both the Doe and Watauga rivers, and everybody had to evacuate that area except the cats. The cats climbed the trees and survived
Days gone by This photo from the early days of St. Elizabeth School was taken by Texas Studio of Elizabethton, courtesy of Betty Jo O’Brien Barker, mother of Richard Barker and Debbie Barker Alexander. Betty Jo estimated that this photo was taken around 1936-37. The priest pictured is believed to be Father J.L. Devine, OP. The photo was taken at the school when it was located at 300 Daytona Place in Elizabethton. The chapel was moved to this two-story house in 1935, and a private Catholic school was opened there. It also served as living quarters for the three Sisters of Mercy from Nashville who staffed the school. The school taught students through ninth grade. In the photo, Betty Jo O’Brien (Barker) is in the back row, second from right, and Lilo Waechter (Duncan) is in the row in front of her, also second from the right (with a bow in her hair).
BILL BREWER
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ou’ve come a long way, St. Elizabeth. The patroness of Carter County’s only Catholic community surely is smiling as St. Elizabeth Parish in Elizabethton celebrates 100 years of Catholicism in the upper East Tennessee enclave. St. Elizabeth parishioners joined together on Sept. 10 to mark the occasion with a church-wide feast and widespread reminiscing about the decades gone by since a priest on horseback rode the roughly 10 miles from Johnson City to launch a Catholic community in Carter County. Chief among those remembering the parish’s early days was Lilo Duncan, who continues to be an active member of St. Elizabeth at age 93 and serves as de facto parish historian. Mrs. Duncan was born in 1930 and as a child attended St. Elizabeth Church and its elementary school, which was established by the Sisters of Mercy. St. Elizabeth Parish began in 1916 as a mission station of St. Mary Parish in Johnson City. The first Catholic Mass in Carter County is believed to have been celebrated by Dominican Father Q. Beckley on Sept. 9, 1923, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Tierney. Until 1935, when St. Elizabeth Church and School were established on Daytona Place in Elizabethton, Mass was celebrated in parishioners’ homes and at a hotel in downtown Elizabethton. The parish was staffed by Dominican priests from nearby St. Mary. Father Leo Baldinger became the parish’s first diocesan priest and pastor when St. Elizabeth became a parish in 1945 as part of the Diocese of Nashville, which was founded in 1837. The parish’s current church on West C Street was constructed in 1948-49 during Fa-
By Bill Brewer
COURTESY OF ST. ELIZABETH PARISH
St. Elizabeth parishioners unite for a church-wide feast and widespread reminiscing on the centennial
Centennial continued on page B2
Richard Barker, Lilo Duncan, and Debbie Alexander
Sacred and southern ‘A High Lonesome Mass’ combines Mass settings and bluegrass style in joyful performance
By Emily Booker
EMILY BOOKER
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y the sound of it, you may not have been sure if it was a Catholic Mass, an old-time Protestant revival, or a Rhythm and Roots stage, but it was certainly a sound glorifying the Lord. “Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Mass,” by Dr. Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsay, was performed to a toe-tapping crowd at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa on Sunday, Sept. 24. The composition, written in 2011, is a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass for choir, vocal soloists, and bluegrass band. The performance at OLOF had been in the works almost as soon as Dr. Christy Lee began working at the parish last summer as the director of music and liturgy. “Tim Sharp has been a good colleague and friend of mine for about 20 years or so just in the music and choral world,” Dr. Lee explained. Dr. Sharp is the former executive director of the American Choral Directors Association. “We’ve stayed in touch and done different projects over the years in different academic and cultural settings,” Dr. Lee said. “So, when I first announced that I had gotten the job at Fatima last summer, a little over a year ago now, he reached out to me…and said, ‘I’m not sure
‘You will not hear too many bluegrass Masses in your life’ Dr. Tim Sharp conducts Our Lady of Fatima singers during the performance of “A High Lonesome Mass” on Sept. 24. if you’re aware of my ‘High Lonesome Mass,’ but since you’re going to be in East Tennessee, this might be something you would be inter-
ested in.’” Dr. Lee was, in fact, familiar with his and Mr. Ramsay’s composition, and she was eager to connect with
musicians and have it performed at OLOF. The parish in Blount County sits High Lonesome continued on page B3