ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Large and in charge.
That's how Sister Josephine Marie Melican has been described. She was a tall, thin woman who was also the last principal of a school for Black children in St. Augustine.
Tuesday morning, she passed away. She was 88 years old.
Sister Josephine was a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph. She led the school through the Civil Rights Movement and met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during that time.
Meanwhile, that the restoration of her old schoolhouse is underway in Lincolnville community.
"It’s very exciting to see the progress," Sister Kathleen Carr said Wednesday, standing on the newly finished front porch of the school. "This building’s been waiting a long time to come back to life." She is the General Superior for the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Augustine.
The St. Benedict the Moor Schoolhouse sat empty in St. Augustine for decades after it closed in 1964. Trees were even growing through the roofless building. That's until the Sisters of St. Joseph decided to start restoring it in 2022.
"I think it’s absolutely fabulous," Sister Josephine told First Coast News in 2022.
Sister Josephine Marie Melican – named Dorothy by her parents – was the last principal of at the St. Benedict school which taught Black students for decades.
"St. Josephine loved being here at St. Benedict," Carr said.
The Sisters of St. Joseph ran the school from the late 1800s to 1964 when integration of schools made the school obsolete, and it closed.
Carr said, "It was painful for (Sister Josephine) to have to close the school."
Sister Josephine was principal for two years during the height of the violent Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine.
In 2022, she told First Coast News, "One day, my 6th, 7th, and 8th graders were not there. And where were they? They were in jail!"
Her students had been arrested the night before for peacefully protesting for civil rights.
Sister Josephine met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when she was the principal. She told a story in 2022 about how the school's paster pulled her out of the classroom and asked her to the rectory next door.
"So I walked in, and there was this gentlemen sitting there who looked very familiar. And Father said, 'Sister, I want you to meet Dr. King.''' Her eyes got wide, remembering the moment, and she told Dr. King, "'Well… hi!' I mean I was completely taken unawares. He was panning silent marches in the city of St. Augustine."
Her students also looked out for her during that tense time in the 60’s.
"They knew there was going to be an uproar, you might say, and they said, 'Sister, don’t go out tonight.' And I would go home and tell my general superior, 'Don’t let the sisters out tonight.'”
Sister Josephine was thrilled to see her fellow sisters restoring the schoolhouse into a community center where single mothers can learn skills that will land them better paying jobs. The building isn’t finished yet, but the building's beauty has been brought back to life. The final touches are underway.
Sister Josephine was just two months shy of seeing it complete.
Carr remembers, "She prayed constantly for this building."
It's a building where a part of Sister Josephine will always be.