Just before noon, on August 31, 1938, Mary Helen Greenwell joined her sister, Rita Germaine, her dad, Paul Hogarty, and her mama, Margaret Marie, as the second child in the young Greenwell family in New Haven, Ky. Eager to initiate their second daughter in their faith, tiny Mary Helen was baptized just four days later, on September 3, at Saint Catherine Church in New Haven. Rita and Helen were soon joined by their brother Homer and their younger sister Janice.
Helen turned 6 on August 31, 1944, and the next week began her association with the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, as she started first grade at Saint Catherine Grade School. She would have Ursuline educators throughout her school years, graduating from grade school in 1952, and beginning her high school studies at Saint Catherine High School, where she encountered Sister DeChantal Whelan in her sophomore year. That sophomore experience was a watershed year for Helen, for it was then that she decided to join the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. Helen transferred to Mount Saint Joseph Academy so she could become a postulant. Following her older sister, Rita, who was now Sister Paul Marie, Helen would say, “my parents thought they were blessed to have two daughters entering the convent. My mother. . . was so happy for me.”
She began her junior year and first year at Mount Saint Joseph Academy on the Tuesday after Labor Day in 1954; on that same day Helen also became a postulant with the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. One year later, not-yet-17, on August 14, 1955, Mary Helen Greenwell took the name Sister Margaret Marie in honor of her mother and joined her 14 other classmates.
Less than two years later in 1957, Sister Margaret Marie would – all in the same year – graduate from Mount Saint Joseph Academy on May 27; make temporary vows on August 15; celebrate her 19th birthday on August 31; and three days later, begin teaching second grade at Saint Brigid School in Vine Grove, Ky. She had not yet even begun taking any classes at Brescia College.
Over the next 10 years, Sister Margaret Marie would teach first and second grades at Saint Brigid School in Vine Grove, and at Saint Columba and Saint Denis Schools in Louisville, while taking summer classes at Brescia College. It would be another year, the autumn of 1968, before she would earn her Baccalaureate in Elementary Education from Brescia, and five more to earn her master’s in education from Western Kentucky University. By then she was teaching in Paducah, Ky., at Saint Mary Elementary. Sister Margaret Marie would teach in Paducah for 18 years, beginning with the primary grades and then moving into teaching religion to all grades. In May of 1982, in her 15th year at Saint Mary Elementary, the mayor of Paducah bestowed on Sister Margaret Marie the official title of “Duchess of Paducah,” in grateful recognition of her service to the children and families of Paducah. And so she became the only Duchess at Mount Saint Joseph.
By 1985, Sister Margaret Marie responded to a call and request to minister in parish work at Saint Ann Parish in Morganfield, Ky. After just one year in parish ministry, she and her co-worker, Sister Clara Johnson, were asked to fill suddenly opened positions at the parish’s school. Sister Margaret Marie continued at Saint Ann School for seven more years.
Sister Margaret Marie had been an educator for 35 years when she heard a voice from the Holy Spirit; she would write, “I loved every year of my teaching, but you know when it is time to move on.” So she told her friend, Sister Clara, that she thought it was time to do something new; and Sisters Margaret Marie and Clara packed their bags and moved to Louisville to begin working at Sister Visitor Center in direct service to persons in need. For the next 22 years, Sister Margaret Marie served as receptionist for Sister Visitor Center. Hers would be the first voice that callers heard or the first welcoming face that visitors or people seeking help would see. Sister Margaret Marie was so proud of Sister Visitor Center and the work and services it provided.
Sister Margaret Marie was a great support to her dear friend Sister Clara during her years of declining health. Sister Clara finally succumbed to cancer in 2014, and by 2015, Sister Margaret Marie knew it was time to come home to Mount Saint Joseph. She retired to Saint Joseph Villa in 2016 and served loyally in the Powerhouse of Prayer.
Just after midnight on April 7, 2026, Sister Margaret Marie stepped into Jesus’ embrace, rejoining her sister, Sister Paul Marie, who had died just three months earlier. Her funeral Mass was held April 14 in the Motherhouse Chapel, with Father Pat Reynolds presiding. Father Ray Goetz, chaplain, and Father John Okoro, pastor at St. Alphonsus Parish, concelebrated the Mass. Sister Margaret Marie’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.