A daughter was born to Lorenzo Carroll Young and his second wife, Loretta Higdon, on April 10, 1913, in their home near St. Mary, Kentucky. She was named Mary Estelle after her father’s first wife, Mary Estelle Craycroft. Marie, her father’s daughter by his first wife, came to live with the family when Mary Estelle was three years old. Mary Estelle’s two younger sisters, one born in 1916, the other in 1919, died in infancy. Both were named Loretta, after their mother. In 1921, a brother, Joseph Carroll was born and three years latter, Joseph Harry was born. Mary Estelle received each of the sacraments of initiation at St. Charles Church. She completed her elementary and secondary education at St. Charles School, and higher education at Mount Saint Joseph Junior College, Catholic Teacher’s College (Albuquerque), Spalding College (Louisville), Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond), University of Kentucky (Lexington), and John Carroll University (Cleveland).
Along with seven other young women, Mary Estelle entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph on September 7, 1931. She received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Carolita on March 19, 1932. This class of novices called themselves the Eight Beatitudes. All of them persevered in religious life. All seven of Sister Carolita’s classmates preceded her in death.
In 1934, the beginning of her teaching ministry, Sister Carolita was missioned to elementary schools: grades one through eight for two years at St. Charles in Bardwell Kentucky, followed by eight years in Blanco, New Mexico. From 1943- 1963 she taught in the following high schools: Kentucky (St. Francis and Holy Cross), Missouri (Glennonville), Kentucky (New Haven), New Mexico (Waterflow), Nebraska (St. Bernard, Nebraska City), and Hardinsburg, Kentucky. During this time she taught history, English, social studies, commercial and P.E.
Sister Carolita spent the remainder of her teaching career as a librarian: at Flaherty High School (1963-1974) and at Flaherty Elementary School (1974-1983); returned to St. Romuald High School, Hardinsburg as part-time librarian for two years; and spent ten years (1985-1995) as librarian at Blessed Mother School in Owensboro (the name changed to St. Angela Merici in 1989). Sister made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1990, which also included Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Rome.
Sister Carolita retired in 1995 at age 82 and served as Motherhouse librarian until she became incapacitated with ovarian cancer only a few months before her death. In her quiet, gentle way, she spread joy all around and spent her spare time with the RSVP group in Curdsville, making lap rugs for the elderly in nursing homes and baby blankets for unwed mothers. Sister Carolita died Wednesday, November 29, 2006. Fathers Dave Glockner, GHM and Tom Kirkendoll, GHM celebrated the funeral Mass, Friday, December 1, 2006. Because of the severe cold wind, the prayer for the burial rite was held in the chapel. Only the celebrants, pallbearers and a few others accompanied Sister’s remains to the convent cemetery for the blessing of the grave and burial.