The daughter of Joseph and Rose Cecil Thompson, Aletha was born on July 3, 1903, in Louisville, Ky. She was not a year old when the family moved from Louisville to a farm about a mile from Raywick. Her parents were from Washington County and they both longed for the good country air for their family. Aletha’s formal education began in the Marion County Public School System. When the Ursuline Sisters began their public school teaching in Raywick at St. Francis Xavier School in 1911, Aletha was among the first to register. In her last year of high school, she heard the call to religious life and responded by entering the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. On March 19, 1926, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Fides. (pronounced “fee-days”).
In August 1927, Sister Mary Fides began her years in the mission field at St. Alphonsus. Her only out-of-state assignment was to Snyder, Neb., 1928-1930. She returned to Kentucky and taught at Fredericktown, St. Francis, New Haven, Buechel, Paducah, Lyndon, Mayfield, Knottsville, and Clementsville. She was most often assigned to high school as a math and science teacher. She became grade school librarian at St. Charles from 1965-1973. From 1973-1984, she discontinued teaching and lived either at the convent at Howardstown, at St. Ignatius in Louisville, or at St. Bartholomew, Buechel, creating needlework and quilts for the Retired Sisters Benefit Picnic and preparing meals for the Sisters.
Sister Mary Fides retired in 1984 to Mount Saint Joseph. She continued quilting and needlework as long as she was able. She also spent many hours of prayer in her room. Because of intense suffering as her health declined, Sister Mary Fides was hospitalized at Mercy Hospital in Owensboro, and died there in the early morning of April 11, 1990. Sister’s remains were returned to Mount Saint Joseph where the vigil service was held that same evening. Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated her funeral Mass the next day, Holy Thursday. Sister Mary Fides’ remains are buried in the convent cemetery. She was preceded in death by her Ursuline sister, Sister Rose Marie.