Sister Blandina Segale: The Chalkboard Champion Who Taught Young Outlaws

The teacher sat beside the pale body of a teenaged outlaw who had been severely wounded in a shoot-out. Gently she mopped the sweat from his brow, helped him swallow a few mouthfuls of fresh water, and changed his bandages. A gang of youthful renegades surrounded the wounded youth's sickbed. The teacher, who was also a Catholic nun, was Sister Blandina Segale.

Rosa Maria Segale was born on January 23, 1859, in Cicagna, Italy. When she was only four years old, her family immigrated to the United States, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating from high school, she entered a convent, changing her name to Sister Blandina at the time she took her final vows.

Mistaking the community for Cuba, Sister Blandina accepted a position as a teacher in Trinidad, Colorado. She arrived in the centennial state on December 10, 1872, and immediately set about persuading the locals to build a better school building and to acquire better furnishings for it.

It was in Trinidad that one day Sister Blandina was called upon to care for bullet-ridden Happy Jack, a member of Billy the Kid's infamous outlaw gang. As compensation for her efforts to save Jack's life, Billy granted Sister Blandina one favor. She immediately asked that he cancel plans to kill four physicians in Trinidad who had refused medical treatment for Jack. Unfortunately, the wounded outlaw eventually died from his wounds, but the nun was able to save the lives of the four doctors.