Blanche was the third of nine children born to William and Ann Emma Luckett Abell at Calvary, Ky., on November 26, 1889. She received her early schooling from the Sisters of Loretto in Calvary until the Abell family moved to a house on the farm of her paternal grandfather. Blanche’s father died when she was 11 years old and then she assisted her mother with the family. Later she went to Normal School so she could teach and also took a six‑week course so she could assist the doctor in his office at Calvary. Blanche obtained a teaching position at Caney Creek School and continued to help the family in various ways. After the family members were old enough, Blanche entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. Two of her sisters had already become Ursuline Sisters. Blanche received the Ursuline habit on March 19, 1926, and the name Sister Anne Vincentia which, in time, became Sister Ann Vincentia. The “e” was dropped!
Already a teacher, Sister Ann Vincentia’s first assignment was at St. Peter of Alcantara School in Stanley where she taught five months, and then at St. Romuald School in Hardinsburg for four months. Her longer full‑year assignments were at St. Paul School in Louisville and St. Martin School in Flaherty. Sister Ann Vincentia taught grades two through five in numerous parochial and public schools staffed by the Ursuline Sisters throughout Kentucky, and she spent five years teaching at Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, N.M., and four years at St. Rose School in Blanco, N.M.
Sister Ann Vincentia retired from teaching in 1971, and returned to Mount Saint Joseph for her final years. Her keen sense of humor remained even after her faculties seemed to be dulled by old age. In late August 1983, she was very ill as was Sister Geraldine Thompson. Both Sisters died on August 25, 1983, and two days later, a double funeral was held in the convent chapel. Father Bernard Barnes, MSJ chaplain, was celebrant and homilist. Concelebrating the Funeral Mass with him was Father Columban, a Passionist priest and nephew of Sister Ann Vincentia. She was then buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors were her Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Otho, and her two Ursuline nieces, Sister Clarita Browning and Sister Marie Goretti Browning. Preceding her in death was her other Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Lawrence.