Born April 28, 1889, in Flaherty, Ky., Mary Catherine was one of the six children of James Valentine and Anna Cordelia Brown Redmond. After her mother’s death, her father married his sister‑in‑law, Harriet, who raised the family. Following Harriet’s death, he married Beatrice Tuell. There were five children from that marriage. Mary Catherine attended the public school of Meade County. She kept house for Father George Friedrich, pastor of St. Martin of Tours Church in Flaherty, for a number of years. When she was 32 years of age, Mary Catherine entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph and on March 20, 1922, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Frederick.
Beginning in 1924, Sister Mary Frederick served 46 years as housekeeper on many Ursuline missions in Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, and Indiana. Sister’s early assignments were Raywick (St. Joseph), Owensboro (St. Joseph), Fancy Farm, and Bardwell, Ky. In 1930, she and two other Sisters opened St. Teresa School in Glennonville, Mo. In 1931, she returned to St. Joseph in Owensboro. Following one year there, she went to Holy Cross, Ky., to Jeffersonville, Ind., and back to St. Joseph in Owensboro. In 1936, Sister was missioned at Bow Valley, Neb., for one year. She returned to Kentucky and was assigned to the Motherhouse for one year. In 1938, she returned to St. Joseph, Raywick, Ky., then came to St. Mary Home in Owensboro. She spent two years at Axtel and returned to Bardwell and to St. Joseph, Raywick. She spent another year at the Motherhouse and in 1945, went to St. Paul in Louisville. Her next assignments were all in Kentucky at Axtel, a return to St. Charles, to Holy Cross, and to the Motherhouse. Following another assignment to St. Charles, Sister spent 1962, a half-year each, at Stanley and Fairfield.
Sister Mary Frederick retired to Mount Saint Joseph in 1963. An unsuccessful cataract surgery left her in a blurred world. Her final years were spent in the infirmary where she died on June 20, 1970, in the 48th year of her religious life. Father Bernard Powers, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass on June 22, 1970. Sister Mary Frederick’s remains are laid to rest in the convent cemetery.
Sister Mary Frederick’s tombstone unfortunately misspells her name Redmon.