The rolling hills of southern Indiana were alive with the sound of music

Many years before the musical nuns in the movie "Sister Act" saved their parochial school through song, and years after Maria twirled across the Alps singing about the hills being alive with the sound of music, there was the sister act of USI, the God Squad. The members were young Benedictine nuns who graduated from Indiana State University-Evansville (ISUE) in 1975.

Nineteen-year-old Sister Sarah Renee Fraker found herself at ISUE after St. Benedict College in Ferdinand closed. She and four of her classmates came to Evansville to finish their education. All five of them lived in convents attached to one of the many Catholic schools in Evansville. They were typical college students, dressed in their black habits.

"It was certainly an interesting dynamic," said Dr. Sarah Wannemuehler, the former Sister Sarah Renee, who is now the director of Assessment and Early Field Experience for the Teacher Education Department at USI. Back then, many students had been educated by sisters at private schools. Now, as young adults, they were being educated next to a new set of sisters.

After class, the young nuns would return to their convents. Something they all enjoyed was being in the mixed choir. "This is when USI had the Mid-America Singers. We were so inspired by them that we started our own musical group, The God Squad."

The group consisted of Sister Sarah Rene playing the bass fiddle and guitar; Sisters Vickie Sue Metzger and Anna Corrine O'Connor on percussion; Sister Regina Marie Boarman on a vintage Gibson guitar and Sister Claudia Margurite Boarman Durkee  on the flute and guitar. "We played every high school around," said Wannemeuhler, "We played at all the parishes in the area and even went all the way to Fort Rucker, Alabama to perform for the army."

Like the Mid-America Singers, they performed a lot of soft rock and folk music. Their set list included The Bee Gees, Bread, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Simon and Garfunkel. They also wrote and performed their own music.

Wannemuehler left the Benedictine order in 1975 after student teaching. She later married her husband Tom, and had two children, Lauren and Aaron. She spent 40 years as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and professor. 

With their children grown, she and her husband thought carefully about where they wanted to retire. Her husband's family is from Evansville, and ISUE, now USI, held a special place in her heart. "It was a dream come true. I got to come back home and give back to those young teachers all that was given to me as a student," she said. "I tell young teachers what they do is very important. You can't diminish the importance of teachers and education." Wannemuehler lectures nationally on the topic of School Law.  

Today, Sister Anna O'Connor teaches at Presentation Academy in Louisville, Kentucky; Reggie Boarman is the chair and associate professor of Social Work at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa; Claudia Beck taught for a few years then stayed home and raised a family, and Sister Vickie Sue Metzger is deceased. 

Although the God Squad disbanded at graduation, Wannemuehler notes that their spirit lives on through another all-sister, Ferdinand-based Benedictine group, Still Pointe.