Born April 26, 1910, in McQuady, Ky., Mary Mabel was the daughter of Samuel and Mary Ryan Beavin, the oldest in the family of three girls and two boys. During the first and second grade, when school was in session, she lived with her grandmother whose home was within walking distance of a one-room school. She went to McQuady public school in grades three and four. Mabel was a fifth-grader when the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Ky., opened St. Mary of the Woods School in McQuady. Mabel continued school there through her sophomore year. She came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy for her junior and senior year.
In September 1930, Mabel and her sister, Lula, entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. They received the Ursuline habit on March 19, 1931. Mabel became Sister Mary Concepta and Lula became Sister Mary Anselm.
While in the novitiate, Sister Mary Concepta asked to become a housekeeper rather than a teacher. Her request was granted and this apostolate of service took her to many convents in Kentucky: Bardwell, Fancy Farm, Mayfield, Holy Cross, Clementsville, Raywick, Jeffersontown, Buechel, and Owensboro (Bishop’s residence, St. Mary Home, Brescia); to St. Bernard Academy in Nebraska City, Neb., and to Affton, Mo. She considered her ministry a call to love God in the service of others and performed it with a grace and simple charm that endeared her to everyone. She took a great interest in ordinary happenings around the convent and the school, always adding her unique kind of humor to recalling situations and events.
Sister Mary Concepta retired to the Mount in 1972, peacefully accepting her final illness. Keeping house for the Bishop had been her last assignment and she spoke of the peaceful solitude she experienced there as her last retreat. Sister Mary Concepta entered eternal life on April 3, 1972, with the same peacefulness that marked her life on earth, simply closing her eyes and going home. Two days later, Father Bernard Powers, chaplain, and Servite priests from Affton concelebrated the funeral Mass. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Anselm.