The daughter of Patrick and Louella Wheatley Sheeran, Mary Isabelle was born November 17, 1899, in Kirk, Ky. She attended Breckinridge County Elementary School. While Isabelle was still in elementary school, her mother, a devout member of the Third Order of Saint Francis, died and was buried in the Franciscan habit. Isabelle’s mother had attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy and acquired a great love for Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Angela from her former teacher, Sister Augustine Bloemer. The love for these saints and for Sister Augustine was passed on to Isabelle. When Isabelle was ready for high school in 1913, her father enrolled her and her sister Laurine at Mount Saint Joseph Academy. After Isabelle’s graduation, the family moved to Detroit, where she found employment as a secretary and bookkeeper. Isabelle made a retreat at The Pines, an Ursuline Convent in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. In response to God’s call to be an Ursuline, she returned to Mount Saint Joseph and entered the novitiate. On August 15, 1922, Isabelle received the Ursuline habit and became Sister Laurine.
Sister Laurine’s first teaching experience was at St. Francis School, Chicago, Ky., where she was superior and principal of the high school. After eight years there, she returned to the Mount and served as registrar of Mount Saint Joseph Junior College. In 1943, Sister Laurine was elected mother superior and served a term of four years. Cultural, professional, and spiritual wholeness of the individual was highly stressed under her leadership. In 1949, Sister was reappointed registrar of Mount Saint Joseph Junior College. She remained in this position for 15 years after the Junior College became Brescia College in Owensboro. Along with Sister Agnita Sweeney, Academic Dean, Sister Laurine is remembered as one of the significant builders in Brescia’s beginning years.
Permanent injury from a fall caused Sister Laurine to retire from Brescia College. She returned to Mount Saint Joseph on September 16, 1965. Her days were filled in helping with community annals, creating beautiful needlework, visiting the sick, and spending many hours of prayer for blessings on Brescia College and the Ursuline Sisters. Several weeks before her death on February 21, 1978, Sister Laurine was confined to the infirmary. Along with five other priests, Father Anthony Ziegler concelebrated the funeral Mass on February 23. Sister’s remains were laid to rest in the convent cemetery.