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Growing Up in Wauwatosa
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Young Grace attended St. Bernard’s School in in nearby Eagle, Wisconsin. There she could spend
Wauwatosa. As expected by strict German time with her cousins. Wauwatosa grew fast in the
Catholic parents whose families had assimilated early 20th century and was quickly integrated into
quickly into American culture, she excelled in her the fabric of urban Milwaukee. But on the farm,
school work. Although she was surrounded by Grace, a “city girl,” could revel in nature, help with
aunts and uncles, her childhood was lonely and she farm chores, ride ponies, and learn about the ani-
looked forward to summer visits to relatives’ farms mals she loved.
Grace with her parents at Post Lake Shy and introverted, Grace found comfort in
reading books and in the company of her kitten,
Boots. Often Boots would climb from the cellar
along the Lily vines growing up the side of the
family’s home to the window of Grace’s second-
floor bedroom. Grace would sneak the kitten inside
and harbor it in her room—a small act of defiance
in a strict German household.
At Holy Angels, an all-girls high school in
Milwaukee run by the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Grace gradually blossomed into a young
woman some remember as adventuresome—even a
little mischievous, as when she and her friends told
the nuns that the electric street car had broken
down on the narrow viaduct leading to central
Milwaukee, so they couldn’t get to school. Instead
they went shopping or to Gilles for hot fudge
sundaes. At Holy Angels, students were expected to
adhere to strict rules, even those governing the
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