Ursuline Academy
Lillian Gish
Actor
You have to be a silent movie buff to know about Lillian Gish, but aficionados of the era will tell you Gish was one of the best, a natural actress who helped revolutionize what had been a hammy pursuit into something more realistic. Gish’s young life was peripatetic, but Ursuline Academy says that she was a boarding school student there from 1910 to 1911.
According to a biography posted on its website, “Lillian was not long in coming to love the convent and all it stood for. She reveled in the solitude, the shut-inness of the place. She became utterly devoted to the nuns, and was heard to say more than once that they were the most truly refined women she had ever met. Naturally spiritual, she was attracted by the convent routine, and more than once was heard to say that she would like to be a nun. Her teachers say she was always gracious and pleasant to her companions, but her natural reserve kept her from being ‘a good mixer.’ She once asked her favorite sister to point out any faults she might be guilty of, saying: ‘I want to eradicate any fault in me that might be an annoyance to others.’ The sister declares that, after watching Lillian carefully for weeks, she was unable to find any fault in her. She was a perfect boarder.”
The bio notes that an autographed copy of Gish’s biography is held within the school’s library, inscribed, “The story of one of your pupils, with gratitude and affection.”