The daughter of Charles and Ellen Porter Hagan, Mary Pauline was born in Holy Cross, Ky., on Oct. 21, 1910, the tenth of 13 children. She received her early education at Holy Cross School, staffed by the Ursuline Sisters. She completed elementary and high school at Loretto Public School. In the summer of 1929, Mary Pauline visited Mount Saint Joseph. She returned in September to enter the novitiate. Following a six-month postulancy, Mary Pauline received the Ursuline habit and was given the name Sister Frances Therese on March 19, 1930.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Frances Therese was first assigned to St. Columba School in Louisville where she remained six years. Following this assignment, she taught mostly in Kentucky at New Haven, Buechel, Bardwell, Sorgho, Fredericktown, Louisville ( return to St. Columba), Waverly, Nebraska City, Neb., (St. Benedict), St. Alphonsus, Calvary, Holy Cross, Owensboro (Precious Blood), and Hardinsburg.
Sister Frances Therese was assigned to parish ministry at St. Catherine in New Haven, Ky., in 1981 and remained there four years. For the next two years, she lived in retirement at Bardstown.
In 1987, Sister Frances Therese retired to the Motherhouse. Her health was such that she was able to live independent of nursing care. She suffered a heart attack in her room the evening of October 15, 1993. Shortly after being taken to the Motherhouse infirmary for treatment, the heart attack proved fatal. Father Lawrence Lindle, a former pupil, celebrated the funeral Mass on October 18. Sister’s remains rest in the convent cemetery.