Myrtle was born Aug. 24, 1901, the daughter of Monroe and Alice Bennett Mattingly of Loretto, Ky. She was baptized, received her First Communion and was confirmed at St. Francis of Assisi Church in nearby Chicago. Her mother died and her father remarried when she was a small child. She attended Mills Public School at Loretto. When she was 18, she decided to become an Ursuline. In June 1919, Myrtle entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. On March 19, 1920, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Joetta.
In September of that same year Sister Joetta began her apostolate of teaching at St. Martin School in Flaherty, Ky., where she remained for five years. She was missioned later to other schools in Kentucky: Louisville (St. Columba and St. Paul), Jeffersontown, St Frances, Clementsville, Howardstown, New Haven, Holy Cross, Rome, Knottsville, Raywick, Earlington, Hardinsburg, Axtel, St. Joseph (St. Alphonsus), Hawesville, and Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She also taught in Nebraska City and Wynot, Neb. Sister Joetta served as librarian in some of these schools, in others as teacher and/or principal and superior. The year prior to her retirement in 1978, she spent one year as clerk in the Maple Mount Post Office.
Sister Joetta had a warm, generous heart for the poor. She always encouraged and brought out the best in students needing extra assistance in their studies, giving special attention to those handicapped in any way. Many of her pupils testify to the great influence she had on their lives.
Through much of her life Sister Joetta suffered poor health. She was often hospitalized for extended periods. Many times she seemed near death, yet her zest for living, her wide interests, and her love for people and for teaching gave her a tremendous power to cling to life. On the morning of January 9, 1981, she had a massive stroke. She died on January 11. Father Anthony Ziegler, Mount Saint Joseph chaplain, and Father Bernard Barnes, OMI, concelebrated the funeral Mass. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her half- sister, Sister Mary Lucy Mattingly, also a Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline.