The daughter of John and Elizabeth Alvey Riney, Florence was born April 23, 1885, in Rineyville, Ky., and was the sixth child of 13. When she was a year old, the family moved to Leitchfield where they stayed for three years and then moved to Union County settling near Morganfield. With no parochial school available Florence attended the county one‑room school. She enrolled as a day pupil at St. Vincent Academy at St. Vincent when she was 13. In 1908 she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth but due to ill health, she returned home the next year. The family physician pronounced her to be stronger two years later so Florence entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. On November 21, 1912, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Louise.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Mary Louise found her mission assignments taking her to the Ursuline schools in Owensboro, Fancy Farm, Knottsville, Earlington, Calvary, and Central City -‑ all in Kentucky. Sister Mary Louise taught also in Jeffersonville, Ind., and in Nebraska City, Neb. She had been a teacher in grade and high schools, in parochial and public schools, and her final assignment was in Browns Valley, Ky., as principal at St. Anthony School.
Sister Mary Louise had an attack of appendicitis in late August 1940, and was taken to St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville where she had surgery on the 26th of August. The surgery was successful but five days later she developed a blood clot on her brain and within a short time she died. The date was August 31, 1940. Father Jolly Paschal Hayden celebrated the Requiem Mass on the 2nd of September, and was assisted by three other priests. Father Peter Braun, who gave the sermon, and Father Andrew Zoeller, MSJ chaplain, were among those present in the sanctuary. Sister Mary Louise was then laid to rest in the convent cemetery.