The daughter of Charles and Sarah Neel Beaven, Mary Myrtle was born Nov. 16, 1886, in Morganfield, Ky. She attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy for two years then entered the novitiate. Three months later on May 5, 1914, Mary Myrtle received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Agatha.
Sister Agatha completed her high school education during her novitiate years, graduating in 1917. She was assigned to St. James School in Louisville where she taught grades five through eight for 11 years. During that time, when the Spanish flu epidemic was at its peak in 1918 and nurses were not available, Sister Agatha, along with Sister Antoinette Krampe and Sister Jerome Cooper, volunteered to nurse the soldiers at Camp Taylor. Later assignments took Sister Agatha to the Louisville suburbs of St. Denis School in Shively, St. Edward School in Jeffersontown, and back to St. James, in 1928, as superior and principal until 1942. She was then assigned superior and principal at St. Bartholomew in Buechel, Ky., for five years. She returned to the classroom, teaching grade six at St. Joseph School in Owensboro for two years. She went back to St. James as sixth grade teacher in 1949 for seven years, making a total of 32 years of service in that school. Her last assignment was to St. Margaret Mary School in Lyndon, Ky., where she spent five years teaching students in the sixth grade.
Sister Agatha retired and returned to Mount Saint Joseph in May 1962. She was in ill health, but not confined to bed. She suffered a heart attack during the evening of October 8, 1971. Before preparations were completed for transferring her to the hospital, Sister breathed her last around midnight. The funeral Mass was celebrated by Father Bernard Powers, chaplain. Present in the sanctuary were Bishop Charles Maloney of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Sister’s former student, and Father James Meder. Sister Agatha’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.