LEWISTON – Sister Solange (Jeanne) Bernier, O.S.U., 86, Ursuline Sister, former teacher, French department head at St. Dominic Regional High School, principal, prioress, CCD instructor, and a goodwill ambassador for the Franco-American community, passed away early Monday, Sept. 3, at the d’Youville Pavilion.

Sister Solange was born in Lewiston, June 4, 1921, the daughter of Joseph Ludger and Laura (Tanguay) Bernier. She attended St. Mary’s Parochial School in Lewiston and in 1938 entered the Ursuline Sisters’ Novitiate at Mount Merici in Waterville, where she completed her secondary school studies.

She made her religious profession in 1941, and later pursued her studies at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in French. In 1965, she was awarded her master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame University, with mention “Magna Cum Laude.”

In 1971, she received a diploma in the teaching of French from the Laval University in Quebec. In the summer of 1979, she was awarded a grant to follow courses for the Professeurs de Francais at the University of Dijon in France.

During her lifetime she was the recipient of many awards and recognitions. In 1975, she was named an outstanding Secondary School Teacher in America. In 1976, the “Conseil de la Vie Francaise en Amerique” in Quebec awarded her a medal making her a member of “L’Ordre de la Fidelite Francaise.” In 1982, Lewiston Mayor Paul Dionne honored her for her outstanding contribution to Franco-Americans.

In 1983, the French government honored her by naming her “Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.” In 1996, she was honored by the National Catholic Educational Association at its convention in Philadelphia, and St. Dominic Regional High School established a scholarship for needy students in her name. In 1998, she was given the “Life-Time Achievement Award” by the Foreign Language Association of Maine.

During the course of her career, she taught in parochial schools in Sanford, Springvale, Waterville, Winslow, and more than 35 years in Lewiston-Auburn. She will be remembered for directing French-Canadian plays such as “Ti-Coq, Le temps des Lilas, L’Avare, Aurore, Tiens-toi bien apres les oreilles a papa, Un Simple Soldat,” as well as writing a French play which retraced the history of the French in America for the Bicentennial celebration of the United States.

In 1972, she taught a college level course on French-Canadian civilization to high-school students and adults in collaboration with St. Francis College in Biddeford and Dr. Norman Beaupre.

She served many years as the spiritual director of La Survivance Francaise.

She will be remembered by her former students for her kindness and dedication. She once said of her students, “I want them to be people-minded and sensitive to the value of others. I want them to go beyond their own little world and dreams.” She also believed that teaching French was more than teaching a language. It is “about people, a nation, about humanity and even about yourself. If you know about a country, you begin to appreciate another culture and that leads to understanding, to appreciating differences, to accepting people and that leads to love and peace.”

The family and the Ursuline Sisters wish to thank the staff at d’Youville Pavilion and everyone who visited her, as well as a close friend and caregiver, Aliette Couturier.

She is survived by two brothers, Lionel Bernier, and his wife, Louise, and Henri of Lewiston; three sisters, Pauline, and her husband, Rejean Bolduc, Antoinette and Ronaldo Bertrand, all of Lewiston, Yvette Labranche of Augusta; a sister-in-law, Therese Bernier of Lewiston; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by two brothers, Raymond and Maurice, and his wife, Rita; a twin sister, Jeannette, and her husband Viateur Poulin; as well as twin brothers, Emile and Emilien, who died in infancy.