Mary Genevieve, one of seven children of Charles and Mary Ellen French Brady, was born March 11, 1901, in Waverly, Ky. Her faith journey began with baptism at St. Agnes Church, Uniontown, on May 1. Her mother and father both died of flu only four days apart in March 1908, leaving a family of children between ages two and 16. Mary Genevieve and her sister, Annie, went to live with their grandfather and grandmother French. The Brady relatives took the four boys and the baby.
Mary Genevieve’s formal education began at the Waverly Public School in March 1909. For a short while, she also attended St. Peter School, Waverly, but came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy for the upper grades and the first two years of high school.
On May 5, 1918, Mary Genevieve, a sophomore, was permitted to enter the novitiate. On August 5, 1918, she was invested in the Ursuline habit and received the name Sister Mary Pierre.
In 1919, shortly after professing temporary vows, Sister Pierre was assigned to teach elementary grades at Raywick, Ky., for three years. In 1922, she was missioned to New Mexico, first at Blanco, then at Farmington. She came to teach at St. Charles, Lebanon, Ky., in 1931. In 1935, she was missioned to Glennonville, Mo., for one year. She came back to Kentucky and taught at Holy Cross and Calvary. She returned to New Mexico in 1940 teaching at Waterflow, Blanco and Farmington until 1946. She was then missioned in Kentucky to Calvary, Fredericktown, Lebanon (St Charles), Holy Cross, Flaherty, Knottsville and Hardinsburg.
Sister retired from teaching and returned to Mount Saint Joseph in 1973. For many years, she helped prepare vegetables and fruits for meals and canning, helped with cleaning, performed other less strenuous household chores and nurtured plants and flowers in the greenhouse.
Her long life ended on October 25, 1997, at age 96, four years after celebrating the 75th anniversary of life as an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph. Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass on October 28, 1997. Sister Pierre’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery,