Born in St. Mary, Ky., on March 25, 1903, Marie was the ninth child of Charles Thaddeus and Gertrude Elizabeth Wheatley Mudd. Marie was 6 years old when she began her formal education at Mudd Elementary School near her home. She later attended St. Charles School and came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy for high school. The life of the Sisters inspired her. Although she had relatives who were Sisters of Loretto, at age 18 Marie entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. After a postulancy of eight months, she received the Ursuline habit and was given the name Sister Marie Secunda on March 20, 1922.
Following preparation for the teaching apostolate, Sister Marie Secunda was assigned, in 1925, to the public school at Holy Cross, Ky., to teach grades one and two. In Kentucky she also taught schools in Jeffersontown, New Haven, Bardwell, Owensboro (St. Joseph), Louisville (St. Columba, St. Margaret Mary, St. James), Raywick (St. Joseph), Earlington, Curdsville, Sorgho, Calvary, Flaherty, Fredericktown, Holy Cross, and Waverly. She taught in Missouri at Wilhelmina and Glennonville, and in New Mexico at Farmington.
Sister Marie Secunda retired from teaching in 1974 due to severe hearing loss. The following year she returned to Mount Saint Joseph. During these years she compiled three scrapbooks of pictures of the Little Drummer Boy. Following three days of isolation for the flu virus, Sister Marie Secunda was admitted to Owensboro‑Daviess County Hospital on January 27, 1990. She died early the next morning. Father Anthony Shonis, Mount Saint Joseph chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass on January 30. With her nephews serving as pallbearers, Sister Marie Secunda’s remains were carried to the convent cemetery.