Born June 1, 1893, in Uniontown, Ky., Bertha was one of the 11 children born to Louis N. and Elizabeth A. Shanks Howard. She received most of her elementary schooling under the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth at St. Agnes School, Uniontown. She attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy for high school. When 20 years of age, she entered the novitiate. On August 5, 1913, Bertha received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Bernadine.
Prepared for the apostolate of domestic service, Sister Bernadine was assigned to St. Anthony at Browns Valley, Ky., where she cared for the needs of the teaching Sisters and the boarding students for six years. She served as housekeeper at the Ursuline convents in Kentucky at New Haven, Fancy Farm, Knottsville, and at St. Columba in Louisville. In 1927, she was assigned to teach middle grades at St. Joseph in Owensboro, followed by St. Lawrence in Philpot, St. William in Knottsville, St. Peter Alcantara in Stanley, St. Bartholomew in Buechel, to St. Columba in Louisville for 12 years. Her only out-of-state assignment was St. Anthony School in Jeffersonville, Ind., 1930-1932.
Sister Bernadine retired and returned to Mount Saint Joseph in 1972 after 58 years of mission life. She spent her later years in prayer, visiting the sick Sisters, and sometimes reciting poetry from an old McGuffy’s reader. Heart problems eventually caused her to become an infirmary patient. She died there on December 1, 1985. Her funeral Mass was celebrated the following day by Msgr. Bernard Powers and Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, chaplain. Sister Bernadine’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.