Catherine was born Dec. 10, 1897, one of 11 children born to Thomas and Mattie Bickett Lamkin of Raywick, Ky. The children received religious instruction from their parents. Catherine’s formal education began with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who were teaching at St. Francis Xavier School in Raywick. When the Sisters of Charity left Raywick, Catherine attended the public school. The Ursulines from Mount Saint Joseph had replaced the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth by the time Catherine was ready for high school. She graduated from St. Francis and entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. Following a five‑month postulancy, on December 30, 1914, Catherine received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Andrew.
As a novice, Sister Mary Andrew received training for her teaching apostolate. Her first assignment was St. Elizabeth School in Curdsville, Ky., followed by an assignment to St. Martin School in Rome, Ky. In 1919, she was chosen to be the youngest of the nine pioneer Ursulines sent to New Mexico. At Blanco, she lived in an adobe house with mud floors and taught in Santa Rosa School, a bilingual public school in San Juan County. After her years in Blanco, she went to Wynot and Bow Valley, Neb. Following these two assignments, she was missioned to Rome, Curdsville and Flaherty in Kentucky. She was then missioned, for fourteen years, to Wilhelmina, Mo. She came back to Kentucky and taught at St. Paul School, Louisville, and St. Francis in Marion County. She then spent one year each at Plattsmouth, Neb., and Sts. Joseph and Paul, Owensboro, Ky. She spent the next 17 years (1953-1970) teaching high school in Kentucky at New Haven, Knottsville, St. Charles, and Flaherty, and at Sacred Heart Academy, Waterflow, N.M. Mount Saint Joseph Academy was her last teaching assignment (1968-1971). She then spent 10 years at St. Bartholomew Convent in Buechel, Ky., preparing meals for the Sisters and making beautiful needlework for the Mount Saint Joseph Picnic, before retiring to the Motherhouse in 1981.
Sister Mary Andrew had reasonably good health in her retirement years and was able to spend much time visiting relatives and friends. Sister had numerous former students who invited her to their homes for extended visits with their families. After one of her visits to Louisville, she stopped at St. Bartholomew to spend a few days with the Sisters before coming back to the Mount. While there, early in the morning of May 16, 1983, she suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She died at Suburban Hospital within the hour. Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass at Mount Saint Joseph on May 18, 1983. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.