Sister Margaret Marie Mitchell, a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth who taught 15 years at Bishop Ward High School, with some treasured memorabilia including correspondence from Thornton Wilder. (Photo from Therese Horvat)

   Impressed with the writing of Thornton Wilder, American playwright, Sister Margaret Marie Mitchell, a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth, began a correspondence with the Pulitzer Prize winning author and his sister that continued through the 1970s. 

   While she treasures the letters and the copy of "Our Town" that the playwright signed, Sister Margaret Marie hopes to find a permanent home for the memorabilia where other Wilder keepsakes are maintained. 

   "I just loved ‘Our Town,’" Sister Margaret Marie recalled. She directed it twice during her 15 years at Bishop Ward High School, Kansas City, Kan. In one performance, Sister Rosemary Kolich, then a student at Ward, had the role of the stage manager, who helps create the town of Grover's Corners for the audience and interweaves the stories of the everyday lives of individuals and families. 

   Her love of the play prompted Sister Margaret Marie to send a letter to the playwright in October 1972 along with a copy of his work. Wilder replied from Hamden, Conn., on May 1, 1973, apologizing for the delay "due to a dry season." In his note to Sister Margaret Marie, he said, "I wrote the whole thing [likely the book Theophilus North] in my 75th year when it seemed to me that my writing days were over. Writing a book is like entering a tunnel or a deep forest-so I ask your forgiveness for the delay." 

   "I nearly dropped dead when I received this letter from him," Sister Margaret Marie recalled. A month later, Wilder returned the copy of his play to her with his signature added. 

   In subsequent years, the correspondence continued as the author's health declined. One note from Wilder dated Jan. 8, 1975 read, "The time I can devote to reading and writing is limited, and I am ordered to make as few appointments as possible." 

   On a trip to the East Coast in 1975, Sister Margaret Marie left a note at Wilder's home that the caretaker found. Wilder explained in a correspondence that he was hospitalized in Boston at the time. He died on Dec. 7, 1975. 

   Sister Margaret Marie has a follow-up letter from Wilder's sister, Isabel, who sent information about the memorial service in his honor at Yale University in January 1976.

    "Even though I've done nothing with these letters but cherish them," Sister Margaret Marie said, "I think that they should go somewhere where they can be properly archived." 

   As for "Our Town," written by Wilder in 1938, Sister Margaret Marie summed up, "It meant more to me than any play I ever did. The whole message and tone were very meaningful and thought-provoking. It is so down-to-earth, so human; about family life and ordinary things that happen to people, life and death, friends that die-all performed on a nearly bare stage." 

   Sister Margaret Marie is retired from teaching and resides in Leavenworth, Kan.

   Therese Horvat is the communications director for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.