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Sisterly devotion

Sister Maureen Smith, one of 18 siblings raised on an Iowa farm, became the champion of farmworkers and their children.

RUSKIN - Don't be fooled by Sister Maureen Smith's heavy Irish brogue. And don't think that just because she became a nun, she never thought about marrying and starting a family.

Smith, "Sister Maureen" to those who know her, sounds like she grew up in the land of shamrocks.

She has visited Ireland. But she spent her childhood in Dubuque, Iowa, on a 310-acre farm that never felt lonely because she shared it with 17 siblings.

The Catholic sharecropping family raised corn, clover, alfalfa, soybeans, cattle and chickens.

As a young girl who spent lots of time with her Irish grandmother, Sister Maureen once thought she'd settle down with a "big cattle farmer."

But like four of her sisters and one of her brothers, she devoted her life to God and the Catholic church.

"Little girls want to be all sorts of things, and I was no different," Sister Maureen says. "But you know, God came calling. And I'm sure glad he did."

The decision set her on a lifelong mission far from Iowa.

Today Sister Maureen is a legend of sorts in southern Hillsborough, where she is known as a champion and guardian angel for migrant workers. In the '70s she found a spot in Ruskin for the first day care for the children of farmworkers. Some three decades later she helps keep that day care and several others going with volunteers and donations.

As volunteer coordinator for the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, Sister Maureen urges civic groups and church congregations to give their time or money.

"You know, they call me the mother of RCMA in Ruskin," she said. "Can you believe that?"

Sister Maureen was a young woman when she joined the Third Order of St. Francis in Dubuque. She also became a certified teacher, and for a decade or so taught junior high school.

In 1970, she went to work with the East Coast Migrant Health Program, an organization that provides health services to farmworkers.

For 21 years, Sister Maureen traveled up and down the East Coast with farmworkers. She migrated with them from farm to farm, from season to season.

The work took Sister Maureen far from Iowa, but she didn't mind. Her family had always split their time between the farm and their faith. The East Coast Health job allowed her to keep that balance.

"I love working with the rural population, because I've always loved that life and lived that life," she said. "My love for these people is what spurs me on."

She came to Hillsborough County often in the '70s and '80s with East Coast Health, but didn't move here until 1991, when she helped establish Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Wimauma.

A gold pin of Our Lady of Guadalupe hangs in her blue Sable Mercury station wagon, near the white rosary nestled in the cup holder.

More than three years ago, she went to work for RCMA as coordinator of an after-school program in Wimauma. Then a United Way grant came, and RCMA used the money to create the volunteer coordinator position.

Sister Maureen was the obvious choice, RCMA officials say. She had valuable connections for raising money. And she doesn't give up, a trait recognized in 2000 when she was nominated for the county's Moral Courage Award.

"Sister Maureen is one of those few people with whom success comes easily, because she is so devoted to the cause," said Selma Haidermota, coordinator of RCMA day cares in the Wimauma area.

Besides her RCMA work, she is president of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network, a national organization that ministers to migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

With so many responsibilities, Sister Maureen doesn't have much spare time. She'd like to ride horses more than once or twice a year, and she doesn't play the guitar and sing as much as she'd like.

Whenever she can, Sister Maureen leaves her Sun City Center home and travels. She sees family, visits her Franciscan order in Dubuque, or explores a city she's never visited before.

With dozens of nieces, nephews and siblings, she rarely lacks for company or a place to stay.

"We're like a small community, really," she smiles, the brogue thick as always. "We didn't always have everything growing up, but we had love and peace and God. That was enough."

- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 661-2443 or svansickler@sptimes.com

Sister Maureen Smith

Iowa brogue: The Franciscan nun grew up on a farm in Dubuque, Iowa, but speaks with her Irish grandmother's thick brogue. "I just say it's my Iowa accent."

On her age: "I never tell, but you can ask."

How many hours she works: "Oh, goodness! Only God knows. He keeps track for me." By the numbers: Sister Maureen is the 16th of 18 children, and one of six siblings to devote themselves to the Catholic church. One brother is a priest.