Frank William and Mary Josephine Blandford Russell of Louisville welcomed their ninth child, Ann Beatrice, on January 16, 1914. The family was completed later with the birth of two more children, a total of seven girls and four boys. The family belonged to St. Brigid Church. The children were baptized, received First Holy Communion and Confirmation there and attended St. Brigid Elementary School taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
Beatrice received her high school education at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, her first acquaintance with the Ursuline Sisters. Following graduation in 1932, she became a postulant at Mount Saint Joseph. She received the Ursuline habit and began the two-year novitiate March 18,1933; she made temporary profession immediately following first profession on March 19,1935.
Sister Joseph Adrian was assigned to teach at St. Elizabeth School, Curdsville, Ky., just 3 miles down the road from the Motherhouse. This was the beginning 65 years spent as an Ursuline teacher: New Mexico at Blanco, San Fidel, Farmington, Santa Fe and Grants for a total of 34 years; in Greasewood, Ariz., for a few months; in Hillsboro, Mo.; and across Kentucky for 25 years: Fredericktown, Raywick, St. Raphael, Louisville (St. Paul, St. Margaret Mary, St. Bernard), and Christ the King in Madisonville. She retired to the Motherhouse in 2001 and became a resident of Saint Joseph Villa in 2006.
The following quote from a tribute given on the occasion of the celebration of Sister Joseph Adrian’s 60th Jubilee best describes her: “We have gathered today to celebrate a remarkable woman. A woman who has touched each of our lives with her smile, her generosity, her love, her spiritual insight, her understanding, her integrity and her compassion.”
Sister Joseph Adrian died Aug. 3, 2008. She is buried in the convent cemetery. Her Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Henry Russell, predeceased her.