One of eight children, Mary Ruth was born May 5, 1919, the daughter of Carl and Frances Rhodes Sherron of McQuady, Ky. She attended St. Mary of the Woods for elementary school and graduated form Mount Saint Joseph Academy. Mary Ruth earned an associate degree from Mount Saint Joseph Junior College and completed an AB degree at Ursuline College in Louisville. She taught four years in Breckinridge County Public Schools while assisting her father in the care of younger brothers and sisters, following the death of her mother. Mary Ruth entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph at age 26. Following a postulancy of 11 months, Mary Ruth received the Ursuline habit on August 14, 1946, and the name Sister Mary Carl.
Sister Mary Carl was first assigned to St. Theresa School in Glennonville, Mo., where she remained for five years teaching the fifth and sixth grades and high school classes. All of her later assignments were to high schools in Kentucky: Leitchfield, Knottsville, St. Francis, Hardinsburg, and Lebanon (St. Charles High School). In 1970, she was appointed assistant principal of Marion County High School, serving in that position for 10 years. Sister’s last assignment was a return to St. Romuald High School, Hardinsburg, in 1981.
In February 1982, Sister Mary Carl left St. Romuald and returned to Mount Saint Joseph, suffering from rapidly progressing cancer. In deep serenity, she confidently faced approaching death. To the very end, tatting and making rosaries were part of each day’s routine. Death came to her on October 30, 1982. Due to the frailty of her 93-year-old father, visitation was held first at Trent-Dowell Funeral Home in Hardinsburg. Her remains were then returned to Mount Saint Joseph for the usual wake service and vigil. On November 2, 1982, Sister’s cousin, Father Carrol Wheatley, and seven other priests celebrated the funeral Mass. Father Terry Bradshaw of the Archdiocese of Louisville, a former student, delivered the homily. Sister Mary Carl’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.