Born April 21, 1917, to Ambrose and Ellen Mattingly Thompson, Mary Lillian was welcomed into the family at St. Joseph, Ky., by Cecilia, Catherine, and Bill. Later she would welcome James, Paul, and Frank. In 1924, her mother died. Cecilia, Catherine, and Lillian went to Mount Saint. Joseph Academy. The four boys went to St. Thomas Home in Louisville. After a year, Mr. Thompson took the girls to Stanley where Cecilia contracted infantile paralysis and died. Catherine and Lillian returned to Mount Saint Joseph.
Lillian’s formal education began at St. Anthony School in Browns Valley. She continued grade school at Mount Saint Joseph Academy remaining there until she graduated from high school in 1933. The next year, Lillian lived in Louisville with Catherine and attended Nazareth College. She returned to Maple Mount and continued her studies at Mount Saint Joseph Junior College. In response to the call to religious life, Lillian entered the novitiate. On August 14, 1937, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Eva.
After teaching religion, English, and Latin at the Academy, Sister Mary Eva’s first mission away from Mount Saint Joseph was Flaherty (Ky.) High School in 1941. She went to St. Bernard Academy, Nebraska City, Neb., in 1944; to St. Catherine High School, New Haven, Ky., in 1950, and back to Mount Saint Joseph Academy in 1962. She was an inspiring teacher of English, literature and Latin. She was appointed to the faculty at Brescia College in 1963 and later became full-time librarian until 1992. She served as sacristan and created artistically symbolic décor for Brescia Chapel during most of those years. During the renewal Chapters following Vatican II, Sister Mary Eva compiled the text for the early editions of our revised constitutions. She also wrote the history of the congregation for the occasion of the centennial in 1974.
She came to Mount Saint Joseph in April of 1992, suffering from terminal cancer. In her gentle, loving way, she was considerate of the nurses, Sisters, and aides who kept watch with her until her death three weeks later on April 30. A wake service was held at Brescia College the following afternoon. Msgr. Bernard Powers, and Father Leonard Alvey concelebrated the funeral Mass at St. Alphonsus Church, May 2, 1992. Sister Mary Eva’s remains rest in the convent cemetery.
Note: The chapel at Mount Saint. Joseph underwent major renovation between July 1991 and July 1992. Funerals between these dates were held at St. Alphonsus Church, St. Joseph, Ky.