Mary Ola Luckett was born on August 12, 1930, to Clarence and Mary Matilda Luckett in Greenbriar, Kentucky, in Marion County. She was the seventh of 10 children. Her siblings included: James Wathen, Thomas Ellwyn, Mary Dorothy, Ann Marjorie, Clarence Junior, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Joseph Benjamin, and Joseph Timothy.
Mary Ola Luckett was the official name on the birth certificate. However, when she was baptized on August 17, 1930, Mary Ola was baptized Agnes Mayola Luckett, and so she remained. She was confirmed on April 4, 1937. She was both baptized and confirmed at Holy Name of Mary Church in Calvary, Ky.
Mayola began her educational career at Grundy School in Marion County. Later she attended three more separate schools before high school — Moore’s Creek Elementary in Finley, Holy Name of Mary at Calvary, and finally, Holy Trinity in Fredericktown. Eventually, she would attend and graduate from St. Charles High School in St. Mary, Ky.
On September 7, 1950, she became a postulant. Less than a year later, on August 14, 1951, Agnes Mayola entered the novitiate, becoming Sister Clarence Marie (in honor of her dad and mom.) She made her first profession on August 15, 1953, and her final profession on August 15, 1956.
Over the next 29 years, she taught in six different schools in Kentucky — including St. Denis in Fancy Farm, St. Lawrence in Knottsville, St. Martin in Rome, St. Paul in Princeton, St. Paul in Leitchfield, and St. Ignatius in Louisville. She then worked with the retired Sisters at St. Boniface in Louisville for three years. Later she spent seven years at the Motherhouse helping with transportation and in charge of the craft room She then went to St. Romuald Parish in Hardinsburg for parish outreach and witness. She later assisted with Centro Latino for three years. For 15 years she ministered at Caneyville, Ky., as a Catholic Christian presence. Her final ministry was in the Powerhouse of Prayer.
Sister Clarence Marie Luckett, 92, died Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, at Mount Saint Joseph in her 72nd year of religious life. The funeral Mass was at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 17. The burial was in the convent cemetery.