Patricia Ann VonderHaar, the third of five children, and the only girl, was born to Bernard and Dorothy VonderHaar on December 17, 1933, in Vine Grove, Ky. Her siblings included: John, William, Jerome, and Lawrence.
A week after Patsy was born, her family traveled 500 miles to Davenport, Iowa, to celebrate Christmas with family. A week later, she was taken to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa, and was baptized surrounded by grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
When she was 7 on an April Sunday and Monday in 1941, Patsy celebrated her first communion and then her confirmation at St. Brigid Church in Vine Grove.
By the time she had graduated from eighth grade at St. Brigid School, and there being no Catholic high school, she enrolled at Mount Saint Joseph Academy. Throughout her four years at the Academy, she was becoming aware of God’s urging her to spend her life as an Ursuline Sister.
She entered the postulancy on September 7, 1952. The next year at her investment into the novitiate, on August 14, 1953, so many Iowa relations wanted to come that her father had to rent a school bus to bring them all to Mount Saint Joseph.
Upon becoming a novice, Patsy took the name “Mary Agnes” to honor both her grandmothers. That was also the name reserved for the little sister she never had.
For 33 years, Sister Mary Agnes taught in Kentucky schools in the Diocese of Owensboro and the Archdiocese of Louisville. Afterward, for eight years, she served as assistant superior for the Ursuline community. Following that she served as a pastoral associate at Sacred Heart Church in Hickman, Ky., for three years. She, and Sister Joan Walz, later served at St. Mary of the Woods in McQuady and St. Anthony in Axtel.
In 2016, Sister Mary Agnes came home to the Motherhouse, but her service was not completed. She kept community annals and joined the Powerhouse of Prayer.
Sister Mary Agnes, 89, died Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at Mount Saint Joseph in her 70th year of religious life.
The funeral Mass was held at 10:30 on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in the Motherhouse Chapel. The burial was in the convent cemetery.