Wilhelmina Clara, one of five children born to Ernest E. and Nora Ballard Downs, was born September 11, 1912, in Louisville, Ky. Her faith journey began September 22, 1912, with baptism at St. William Church, Louisville. Clara was only a few days old when her mother died. Uncle John and Aunt Sara Downs Ballard took the baby into their home in Marion County. Clara said, “Had I not become a foster child I would never have known the Mount Saint Joseph Ursulines!”
In October 1920, Clara began her formal education at Holy Name of Mary School in Calvary, Ky. She spent the last two years of high school at Mount Saint Joseph Academy as a work-study student. She always praised the Mount Saint Joseph Ursulines for “taking in poor girls and letting them work for their tuition.”
On September 8, 1930, Clara entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. She received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Jean Claire, March 19, 1931.
Beginning in 1933, Sister Jean Claire taught elementary and high school in both public and parochial schools in Kentucky for 45 years: Raywick, Flaherty, St. Francis, Owensboro, Mayfield, Knottsville, Clementsville, St. Joseph, New Haven, Lebanon, and Hardinsburg.
Sister Jean Claire retired from classroom teaching in 1979 and became active in parish ministry at the Acoma Indian Mission in San Fidel New Mexico, directing the CCD program there for three years. She returned to Blessed Mother School in Owensboro and served as librarian until 1986. She accepted the position of pastoral minister at St. Joseph Catholic Center in Greenville, Ky., and continued that ministry for seven years.
In 1993, Sister Jean Claire retired to the Motherhouse, where she was especially diligent in praying for priests. On February 14, 1998, she was taken to Owensboro Mercy Hospital where she died peacefully the following morning. Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass on Wednesday, February 18, 1998. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.