Born at Morganfield, Ky., Ellen was the daughter of N. F. and Mary E. Thompson Sipes. She attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy during the school year 1905‑1906, and took college courses at St. Francis College in Albuquerque, N.M. At the age of 32, Ellen entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph and following a postulancy of six months, she received the Ursuline habit on August 15, 1922, and the name Sister Elizabeth Marie.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Elizabeth Marie was assigned first to St. Alphonsus School across the road from Mount Saint Joseph Academy, where she taught for one year. Other teaching assignments took her to the schools in Stanley, Waverly, Cloverport, Raywick, Peonia, and Flaherty which were parochial or public schools in Kentucky. Sister Elizabeth Marie taught for seven years in Blanco, N.M., and for three years in Wilhelmina, Mo.
Sister Elizabeth Marie became ill during the school year when she was teaching at Flaherty and was taken to St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville where she remained for some time. She then returned to Mount Saint Joseph and was eventually admitted to Mercy Hospital in Owensboro where she died on August 19, 1954, following a lingering illness. Her Requiem Mass was offered by Msgr. Gilbert Henninger, MSJ chaplain, on August 21, and Sister Elizabeth Marie was laid to rest in the convent cemetery.