One of 12 children, Myrtle was born Aug. 19, 1894, to Thomas and Anna Florence Ballard Thompson of Holy Cross, Ky. She received her early formal education in Clarktown School, a one-room public school in Nelson County. When the Ursuline Sisters opened Holy Cross School, Myrtle completed elementary and high school there. She entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. Myrtle received the Ursuline habit on November 28, 1917, and the name Sister Dominica.
Sister Dominica was prepared for an apostolate of domestic service and was assigned first to St. Denis at Shively, Ky., where she remained three years. She was assigned to several other convents in Kentucky: St. Charles, Bardwell; St. Paul in Louisville where she served for 19 years; Calvary; Earlington; and Stanley. After 29 years on missions away from the Motherhouse, Sister Dominica was assigned to Mount Saint Joseph Academy, taking charge of both the students’ dining room and visitors’ dining room from 1947 to 1974.
Sister Dominica’s health failed rapidly and she gave up active duty before the opening of the school year in 1974. She soon became a patient in the infirmary. Death came to her on October 22, 1974. Two days later, Msgr. Bernard Powers, chaplain, Father Lucian Bianchi, OSB, from Pevely, Mo., and Msgr. Edward Russell, retired chaplain, celebrated her funeral Mass. Sister Dominica’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her Ursuline sister, Sister Thomas Ann.