The daughter of William and Catherine Stengell Williams, Eva Catherine was born on Sept. 27, 1895, in Owensboro, Ky. She had five brothers, and two sisters who also became Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph. In 1904, Eva began her formal education at St. Frances Academy in Owensboro. She enrolled at Mount Saint Joseph Academy in 1912. She entered the novitiate and after nine months as a postulant, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Joseph Marie on December 30, 1914.
Sister Joseph Marie served as secretary to Mother Aloysius Willett and Sister Agnes O’Flynn. Her studies were furthered at the Catholic Sisters College in Washington, D.C.; Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas; and Marygrove College in Detroit, Mich. Sister Joseph Marie taught at Mount Saint Joseph Academy and was the Academy librarian for 48 years. During these years, she was periodically called to substitute for a few months at St. Joseph High School in Owensboro; St. Theresa School in Glennonville, Mo.; St. Charles High School in Lebanon, Ky., and Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, N.M. This gave her the opportunity to see and experience Ursuline life as lived by the Sisters who taught in parish schools.
Sister Joseph Marie retired from Academy in 1973 and began working in the Archives, organizing the vast amount of data that had collected over the 99 years the Ursulines had been at Mount Saint Joseph. She retired in 1984 from active work in the Archives, but her keen interest in preserving the history of the community never waned. Though Sister Joseph Marie never sought attention to her many achievements, her vast knowledge of the successes and the hardships of the young community and her loyalty to Angela’s vision of educated women leaders remain the legacy of this inspiring woman.
Her sister, Sister Agnes Catherine, tells of the last days of Sister Joseph Marie. “Sister fell in her room early in the morning of March 29, 1989, the 75th anniversary of her entrance into the novitiate. She was taken to the hospital in Owensboro and found to have a broken hip.” Following a week in the hospital, Sister Joseph Marie returned to the infirmary at Mount Saint Joseph and died on April 21, 1989. Two days later, Msgr. Bernard Powers celebrated her funeral Mass. Sister Joseph Marie’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors were her two Ursuline sisters, Sisters Charles Asa and Agnes Catherine.