Marie Ernestine Hayden was born September 12, 1915, the second child of Felix and Ethel Buckman Hayden of Fancy Farm, Ky. An older brother Bill, (William Felix) and five other siblings, Mary Catherine, Frances Virginia, Charles Louis, Frances Eula and Mary Elizabeth completed the Felix and Ethel Hayden family. Ernestine was 3 years old when her father moved the family to a farm in Carlisle County, near Bardwell, where the children went to elementary school at St. Denis taught by the Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph. They had known the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who were at St. Jerome in Fancy Farm. Ernestine’s first grade teacher was Sister Joseph Benjamin Buckman. Little wonder she grew up loving the Ursulines.
Ernestine worked in a country grocery store and helped on the farm after finishing grade school. On September 8, 1932, she followed the call in her heart and entered the Ursuline community at Mount Saint Joseph. Her postulancy was interrupted by surgery for appendicitis. She re-entered the community on Sept. 8, 1933, received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Ethelreda, in honor of her mother, on March 19, 1934.
After first profession of vows, August 15, 1936, she was missioned to various convents as housekeeper for 16 years: in Kentucky at Browns Valley, Lebanon (St Charles), Owensboro (St. Mary Home), New Haven, and Louisville (St. Columba); and in New Mexico (Blanco) and Nebraska (Paul). In January 1952, she began classroom teaching in primary grades: Nebraska (Paul), Missouri (Hillsboro, Glennonville, Poplar Bluff), New Mexico (San Fidel), and Kentucky (Philpot, Sorgho, Wax, Buechel, and Mayfield).
As an educator for 36 years, she retired to the Motherhouse in 1988. She enjoyed the many spiritual benefits of life at the Mount. She worked with the Retired Senior Citizen Volunteer Program, helped in the kitchen and craft room and made many, many crocheted angels for the picnic. She was a quiet, gentle presence among us, patient and uncomplaining.
Although she was under doctor’s care like most 91 year olds, she actively attended meals, daily Mass and community prayers until three or four days before suffering renal failure and quietly dying in Saint Joseph Villa, before daybreak February 25, 2007.
Father Dave Glockner, GMHM and Father Tom Kirkendoll, GMHM celebrated the funeral Mass February 27. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Her Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Mercy Hayden, preceded her in death.