Brilliant buttons

School art masterpiece refurbished, brought home

By Jennie Zeitler

Jeannie Brever Goligowski, who grew up in Browerville, collected buttons for the Button Madonna in 1951. She helped her grandma cut buttons, which were saved in a coffee can. She donated buttons again for the Madonna’s recent restoration. Contributed photo

Sr. Elvan Drayna was a teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Little Falls in 1951, when she and her 53 third- and fourth-grade students created an artwork that has survived for several generations: a bigger-than-life-sized depiction of the Virgin Mary and child Jesus on a large piece of canvas – made out of buttons.

During that 1951-1952 school year, which was the last year that classes were held in the old Antlers Hotel building next to Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sr. Elvan began the project. She first asked the parish custodian, Valentine Jaszkowiak, to construct a large wooden frame. Sr. Elvan covered the frame with a large, heavy canvas, and painted the images of Mary and Jesus. She gave great detail to their faces, and filled in the other design elements with solid color.

According to a church history written about the project by John Lauer, “The sections of her crown, veil, and clothes were numbered with a corresponding color code.”

When the school year started, the first task was for the students to gather buttons. They were encouraged to look for one-of-a-kind colored and white buttons. Parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends all searched for buttons. Soon, buttons in all sizes, shapes, and colors arrived at the school from cities, villages, and reservations throughout Minnesota (and all over the United States).

Jeannie Brever Goligowski, who grew up in Browerville, is the daughter of Sr. Elvan’s first cousin, Patricia Drajna Brever. Jeannie was asked to help Sr. Elvan in Little Falls.

“My grandma said that we had to cut all the buttons off the clothes to send to Sr. Elvan,” said Jeannie. “We saved them in a coffee can.”

During school days, after students had finished their schoolwork, they were encouraged by Sr. Elvan to sew a button on the Madonna that had been set up in an empty classroom. The students matched buttons to the color of the design. They could sew on a certain number of buttons before they had to return to the classroom. The students enjoyed the project so much that they began staying after school and coming on Saturdays and holidays to sew buttons. Some children even brought their public-school friends to work on the project.

Sue Houdek heard stories about how the Madonna was put together. The canvas was set up horizontally on its frame, as a quilt would be, ready for stitching.

Sr. Elvan Drayna was teaching third and fourth grades at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Little Falls in 1951, when she and her 53 students began a work of art made of buttons. The Button Madonna has endured through the decades and was recently restored. Contributed photos

“The kids’ arms weren’t long enough to reach the middle of the design,” she said. “Some of the boys were under the frame and when someone pushed a needle through from the top, they grabbed the needle and pulled it down, found the right hole and pushed the needle back through the canvas. The girls working on the top grabbed the needles and pulled them through.”

When school closed for the summer in 1952, the Button Madonna wasn’t quite finished. Sr. Elvan was transferred that summer. That autumn, her replacement, Sr. Bernadette Weber,  helped Sr. Elvan’s former students finish the project in the brand new Our Lady of Lourdes school building.

When it was completed, the work of art hung in the Our Lady of Lourdes School library for many years.

During a remodeling project at Our Lady of Lourdes Church that began in February 1975, a hallway in the basement was closed off to make space for restrooms, which provided the perfect space inside the dining room to build a display for the Button Madonna. Gert Schlax and Clara Wilcek cleaned and repaired the artwork and it was hung in a new spot to be seen by many more people.

For a time, living plants and flowers were placed in front of the Madonna in her niche. Unfortunately, that played a part in her deterioration. Some of the water used to water the plants made its way into the Madonna’s frame. It also caused mold and mildew in the brick channel at the base of the frame. In addition, some of the buttons were made of materials that were not holding up well over the years.

By 2021, Gerri Klimek had noticed that some of the buttons had begun to disintegrate, and that there might be mold on lower portions of the canvas. The Midwest Arts Conservation Center (MACC), which had previously restored the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa that hangs upstairs in the church, agreed to look at the Button Madonna to determine what had to be done to conserve it.

Gerri went to the parish council for approval and financial backing for the project, which was given. Thor Lindquist, Greg Hammond, and John Lauer removed the Button Madonna from its niche in the church basement. Michael Retka and John transported it to the MACC in Minneapolis.

After the MACC decided that they would be able to conserve the structural parts of the artwork, Gerri began asking for buttons from Lourdes parishioners to replace the buttons that had naturally disintegrated over time. Seventy years after the original project, Jeannie Goligowski once again donated buttons for the project.

The 1951-1952 third- and fourth-grade students of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Little Falls took part in a bigger-than-life-size artwork of the Madonna and Infant Jesus. The students in Sr. Elvan’s class who participated in making the button Madonna include (Front L to R): Gerald Tuholski, Karen Copa, Gladys Socher, Jeanette Ringwelski, Mary Gamradt, Marilyn Henn, Patricia Piekarski, Diane Stay, Audrey Hines, Karen Anderson, Carolyn Dybdall, Albert Heurung;  2nd row L to R: Darlene Adams, Lawrence Johnson, Robert Pelkey, Jerome Podraza, Gerald Ginter, John Kulus, John Tabatt, Eva Zeck, Robert Adelmeyer, Robert Kalinowski, Otto Wilczek; 3rd row L to R: Sharon Dengel, Carol Ann Kalis, Margaret Pietrowski, Doris Wielinski, Elizabeth Lutz, Maryann Zaren, Diane Wojciechowski, Diane Stroschein, Roselyn Wielinski, Marlene Hennek, Henrietta Fischer, Janet Ringwelski; Back row L to R: Dale Eisel, Michael Schlax, Thomas Wielinski, Richard Chirhart, Constantine Zak, Donald Karnowski, Michael Johnson, Lawrence Miller, Ronald Zak.

The Button Madonna spent 11 months at MACC before returning to Little Falls. Next, Mike Gold and Michael Retka transported her to Alexandria to receive a new frame by Travis Miller. She came back to Our Lady of Lourdes in September 2025.

The Button Madonna was reinstalled an Nov. 22, 2025. It was Gerri Klimek’s foresight and determination that led to the preservation of this treasure, although she didn’t live to see her goal reached.

The Button Madonna has touched untold numbers of people in the decades since she was inspired by Sr. Elvan. John Lauer first saw her in 1986, shortly after he started teaching at Our Lady of Lourdes School.

“I thought she was quite beautiful. As I read about her history, I was amazed to find out how she had been made, button by button,” he said. “She was a great example to me of the work that school teachers can accomplish... She inspired me to want to build that spirit of cooperation and effort in my own classroom, to create something that would last long after students had moved on. I spent the rest of my career trying to achieve that ideal.”

“She’s always been there in my life,” said Michael Retka. “I believe our Blessed Mother was there with Sr. Elvan during the process.”

Gerri’s daughter, Tamara Klimek Bellefeuille, holds the Button Madonna in a special place in her heart.

“As a child, I remember getting pictures taken in front of her on special occasions such as First Communion, eighth-grade graduation, Confirmation, and during anniversary parties held in the OLOL church basement,” she said. “I’ve often witnessed small children running to the back where she stood and then stopping in awe. They are drawn to her just as I was growing up. I feel the same unexplainable spiritual significance when I stand before her today as I did then.”

The refurbished Button Madonna has a spotlight on it, making it sparkle and shine.

Through the efforts of many generations of people over the decades since she was completed, the inspiring masterpiece of the Button Madonna is back in her place, with revitalized colorful buttons and a new spotlight shining on her for generations to come.

A sitting area has been set up in front of the Madonna, with furniture and decorations donated by the Ernie and Gerri Klimek family.

“Our mom always had a sincere devotion to the Blessed Mother and she loved the Button Madonna,” said Tamara. “The Button Madonna was always a great topic of conversation for people as they gathered here. We wanted to continue what mom started, to create a cozy space. We feel as though Mom has been guiding us in this project and know that she would be proud.”

“She’s beautiful,” Jeannie said. “It makes me teary-eyed to look at her.”