Mary Ethel, one of seven children, was born April 15, 1919, to Lewis and Florence Mahoney Sims at New Haven, Ky. Two days later, she began her faith journey with baptism at St. Catherine Church, New Haven. Prayer, church, school work and good family fun were the order of the day in her home.
On September 7, 1937, Ethel, along with four other young ladies, entered the Mount Saint Joseph novitiate. On August 4, 1938, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Lewis. She returned to her baptismal name during the time of renewal after Vatican II.
Her first assignment was to Cloverport, Ky., where she taught grades 1‑4 for a year. Other assignments during her 44 years in education ministry were Vine Grove, Knottsville, Rome, Paducah, Bowling Green, St. Ignatius, Precious Blood, and St. Pius X in Kentucky; Plattsmouth, Neb., and Albuquerque, N.M. She usually taught the upper grades, sometimes acting as principal, superior, and organist for the parish choir.
In 1984, Sister felt she needed to choose another ministry, not that she felt Catholic education insignificant, but that she needed a change. After working one year in Catholic Charities in Farmington, N.M., she returned to Kentucky and served as pastoral minister in the Catholic parish at Marion. In 1988, she and Sister Mary Mercy Hayden reopened the convent at Calvert City and directed the Christian formation program for youth and the outreach ministry to the sick and homebound of the parish. Due to the effects of cancer, Sister Ethel went to Central City, a smaller parish, in 1993.
Having battled cancer since 1987, Sister Ethel left Central City in 1994 and came to the Motherhouse infirmary in need of consistent nursing care. She died in Owensboro Mercy Health Hospital on March 27, 1996. The wake service was held the next day. .Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass, March 29. Sister Ethel’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.