Any info on the REAL Trouble With Angels (Jane Trahey)?

You know, I have the book and never read it, but I guess I should. Unfortunately, the only person who may have some info would be the late Ida Lupino. I don't know how much she knew about the book but I'm sure she had a lot of info if she was willing to make a movie out of the story and put her name on it.

Hi Divmercy1,


I might be the only person left who owns a signed first edition of Jane's book, not the re-release titled the same as the movie, but the original, "Life with Mother Superior." I love it and often wonder why they didn't follow the actual story more in the movie, it certainly would have been just as funny, maybe a little less "Disney-esque," which in my eyes is always a good thing- only Disney ought to ever try doing Disney. (Don't misunderstand me, though, "Trouble with Angels" is still, and I suspect always will be, my favorite movie, not film, perhaps, but definitely movie.) For some reason, a lot of people seem to think that "LWMS" was Trahey's only book, but she did some wonderful feminist work, too, writing some 16-odd books concerning women in the business world, back when being a feminist wasn't branded as being unbecoming. (If there was ever one person I could travel back in time and convince oh his parents not to have children, it would be Rush Limbaugh, for popularizing the word "feminazi.") If you haven't read it, her "Jane Trahey, On Women and Power" is excellent as, no matter what her topic, that wonderful sense of humor always came through.

Anyway, to answer your question about the "real" Mary Clancy, she never actually existed, and yet she did, too. While the character of Rachel may have represented the actual flesh & blood Jane Trahey, Mary Clancy was actually her spiritual alter-ego, the person she would have been had she followed that same pull she wrote about which drew MC into the fold. The two characters were, in fact, the yin & yang qualities of the same woman.

On the question of "Providence Academy" and its real name, well, about all I can remember is that it is located somewhere just outside of Chicago. If you really want to know, it ought not take much of an internet search to turn up a list of all the Catholic prep-schools for girls that were active in that area at that time. Even if the school is co-ed now, which, considering that the trend in the 60s and 70s was definitely to move in that direction, you should be able to search the "history" section of the various school websites to locate the appropriate answer. I do know that there was a girl's school called Providence (run by the Sisters of Providence) which joined together with St. Mel (run by the Christian Brothers) to become what is today's very popular Providence/St. Mel High School. But whether this is the Providence of which you now seek, I'd only be guessing. It would certainly be the first lead I'd follow, though, as it might well prove to be the only Providence in that area old enough to have been active at the same time Jane was in school.

I hope any or all of this helps you in some small way!


Take good care,

Linda T.

I actually used to correspond with the "real" Mary Clancy, Sister John Eudes. They didn't actually go to St. Marks, they went to Providence-St Mel's high school here in Chicago. This was actually a day school, not a boarding school. "Mary" did still in the convent, when I last talked to her (around 2002) she was living at the Motherhouse for the Dominican order.

You really love those * *, don't you?

You really love those * *, don't you?