Born Sept. 2, 1907, in Browns Valley, Ky., Mary Anna was the daughter of David and Dolores Cline Gatton. Her formal education began at St. Martin School in Rome, Ky., and continued at St. Frances Academy in Owensboro through elementary school. She began high school at St. Frances Academy also, but graduated from Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Maple Mount. At the age of 18, Mary Anna entered the novitiate. Following her seven-month postulancy, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Dolores on March 19, 1926.
Sister Mary Dolores was prepared for the teaching apostolate. Her classroom experiences began in Nebraska and New Mexico. She went first to Nebraska City for one year in 1928. She was then assigned for one year to Blanco, N.M. She came back to Nebraska and taught at Wynot, Plattsmouth, and Snyder from 1929 to 1934. During these years she taught primary and middle grades. In 1935, she came back to Kentucky and taught one year in the high school at Howardstown. She spent the next year in full-time study at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. Following the study at Chestnut Hill, she returned to Plattsmouth, Neb., for two years teaching grades one through three. She returned to Kentucky in 1939 and taught high school at Knottsville and New Haven. Her next assignments were Raywick (St. Francis), and Lebanon (St. Charles), Ky. She returned to Nebraska City and taught for two years in St. Benedict Elementary School. In 1960, she came back to Kentucky and taught at Princeton and Axtel. She was assigned, in 1967, to St. Angela Merici Elementary School in Florissant, Mo. Sister returned to Kentucky in 1975 and taught at St. Angela Education Center in Louisville until she retired in 1980.
Sister Mary Dolores came back to Mount Saint Joseph and spent her final years in the infirmary. To the very end of her life, wherever Sister Mary Dolores happened to be, she left a trail of contagious laughter. In early October 1985, Sister Mary Dolores was hospitalized at Mercy Hospital in Owensboro. Death came to her most unexpectedly about 11:15 in the evening of October 15. On October 18, 1985, her funeral Mass was celebrated by Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, chaplain, Father Anthony Ziegler, Msgr. Bernard Powers, and Father Paul Kerrsgieter from Florissant, Mo. Many of Sister Mary Dolores’ relatives, friends and former students were in attendance. Sister Mary Dolores’ remains are buried in the convent cemetery.