On August 7, 1910, Joseph Lawrence and Mary Elizabeth Mills Ray of Rhodelia, Kentucky, welcomed the birth of their sixth child. She was baptized Edith Elizabeth on September 11, 1910 by Father J.P. Raoux, pastor of St. Theresa Church, Rhodelia. As the years passed, this family welcomed the birth of six additional children: five boys and a girl. Edith Elizabeth lived a very happy and wholesome childhood in a home made sacred by parents who, in Sister Elizabeth Ann’s own words, “though of modest means and uneducated by academic standards possessed qualities that were priceless: a firm faith and trust in God, respect for all people, and willingness to work hard in providing for their children.” Edith Elizabeth received her elementary school education at St. Theresa Parish School taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. She came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy for high school.
Edith Elizabeth’s association with the Ursulines during high school led her to respond to a call to religious life. Upon the advice of her pastor, Father E.C. Donovan, she entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph on January 21, 1929, and received the habit and the name Sister Elizabeth Ann on August 14, 1929.
Sister Elizabeth Ann continued her education as an Ursuline teacher, earning a BA degree from St. Joseph College, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a MA from Creighton University, Omaha Nebraska. Her teaching experiences include 21 years in Kentucky (Central City, Fairfield, Browns Valley, Louisville, and Owensboro); 1 year in Glennonville, Missouri; and 32 years in New Mexico (San Fidel, Farmington, Grants, Waterflow, and Albuquerque). Sister spent most of those years teaching 7th and 8th grade, and more often than not, as teacher/principal/local superior. She is remembered by the Sisters with whom she lived for her quiet and conscious graciousness, prayerfulness, love for her own family, the Ursuline community, and the Franciscan priests with whom the Ursulines partnered in the New Mexico missions. Her co-workers in the schools remember her as possessing a unique passion for the welfare of each student, a deep respect for individual differences, a sincere interest in the home life of each child, and cultivating compassionate relationships with parents. The ability to inspire, within a school, an atmosphere of strict discipline seemed to be second nature for Sister Elizabeth Ann. Students remember her as never being unkind or impatient. Teachers often remarked that the calm control that Sister’s attitude generated contributed greatly to the students’ ability and desire to learn. Sister is remembered as a prayerful, deeply focused-on-essentials-of-living-and-loving kind of woman ─ a cherished friend with a dry sense of humor.
After 54 years of teaching, Sister retired to Mount Saint Joseph in 1985. For the next 12 years, she volunteered her service in the Archives before fully retiring in 1997. During all of this time, she remained active in the life of the Motherhouse community, continued to visit her family, friends, other Ursulines and former mission sites, and stayed in contact with former pupils, and the Franciscan Fathers. She taught religious education at Sebree, Providence and Saint Alphonsus. When the painful diminishment of old age took its toll, Sister leaned into the will of the One she loved with gracious resignation. She died as she had lived, quietly, calmly, early Sunday morning, November 16, 2008. Her funeral Mass was celebrated on Tuesday, November 18, followed by the burial of her remains in the convent cemetery. Father Robert Ray, a nephew, officiated at the Mass and burial ceremony.