Clara Mae Reid was born on January 14, 1939, in Nelson County near Loretto, Ky. She was the third of nine children born to William Joseph Reid and Mary Josephine Corbett Reid. She was preceded in birth by Carolyn Maurice and Joseph Gerald and followed by Bernadette, Joseph Parker, Charles Stanley, William Michael, Helman Philip and Marcella.
Clara was baptized on February 19, 1939, at Holy Rosary Church in Manton, Ky. She was confirmed on June 13, 1948, at Holy Cross Church in Loretto by Archbishop John A. Floersh. Her family lived in the Manton area until she was about four. At that time, the family moved to the Reid’s family farm in Marion County near Holy Cross.
Although Sister Clara grew up just three miles from the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse, she was taught by Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph and chose, at age 20, to enter the Ursulines because of the special interest shown in her by the Superior, Sister Mary Wilfrid Hayden. So, in 1959, after working in the Cowden Factory for two years, she decided to enter the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph with 14 other young women. Sister Cecelia Joseph Olinger is her only classmate to remain.
She made temporary profession on August 15, 1961, and made perpetual profession on August 15, 1964. During the time she was going to Brescia College, she was also teaching at Blessed Mother School in Owensboro and later at St. Joseph School in Mayfield, Ky.
In May 1971, she received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Brescia College and four years later she received her master’s degree in Elementary Education from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky.
Sister Clara taught in Kentucky at Blessed Mother School in Owensboro, St. Joseph School, Mayfield, and was principal at St. Pius Tenth School in Owensboro, as well as one year of leading the day care at St. Pius Tenth. Most of her ministry years were spent in New Mexico, where she was a teacher at St. Charles Borromeo School in Albuquerque and served as a substitute teacher in the archdiocesan schools for one year. She was principal at St. Teresa School in Grants, N.M. After completing her ministry in education, she served as a clerk in the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store in Albuquerque from 2012-2014. After this ministry, she retired to the Motherhouse at Mount Saint Joseph.
Sister Clara Reid, 80, died December 29, 2019, in Louisville, in her 60th year of religious life. The funeral Mass was at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, January 3, 2020, in Mount Saint Joseph Chapel. Burial was in the convent cemetery.