Mary Elizabeth, the fifth child of William Joseph and Mary Josephine Greenwell Boone of New Haven, Ky., was born January 31, 1918, in a deadly cold winter. Despite the sub zero temperature, she was taken by buggy two days later to St. Catherine Church for baptism. Even the horse received lacerations on its legs from crossing the icy creek.
The family grew to include 13 children ─ three boys, Fred, Aloysius and Joseph; 10 girls, Mary Elizabeth (Sister Mary Regina), Joan (Sister Aloise), Margie, Cecilia, Mary Jean, Josephine, Edna Marie, Bernice (Sister Joseph Angela), Catherine, and Teresa. They lived on a farm south of New Haven. During the Great Depression, Mr. Boone supplemented his income by working in road construction. Family life for the Boone family was full of rich experiences. The Rolling Fork River was their private swimming pool in summer and skating rink in winter; the great forest behind the river a virtual private park for swinging on grapevines, picking wild flowers and blackberries. Roaming the knobs surrounding their farm on all sides was perfect for camping out and as eventful as mountain climbing. Gathering for prayer each morning and night, and going to church services every time the bell rang gave a sense of security to daily living and future happiness.
The children were educated at St. Catherine Elementary and High School, taught by the Ursulines. Sister Mary Regina’s godmother, Sister Hilary, a Sister of Charity of Nazareth, encouraged her to think about religious life. Father James Willett, acting as her mentor, and the many Ursulines she encountered in grade and high school, apparently strengthened her resolve. Mary Elizabeth entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph in September 1936; received the habit and the name Sister Mary Regina in August 1937.
Sister Mary Regina’s first mission was Browns Valley, Ky., as housekeeper. She began her teaching career at Central City, Ky., in 1941. A year later, she partnered with her sister, Sister Aloise, teaching 4th grade at St. Columba in Louisville, while beginning study at Nazareth College where she completed an AB in history and math, and later received an MA from Spalding College. She did post-graduate study at The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In 1954, she began teaching high school at St. Romuald in Hardinsburg, Ky., completing 16 years there. Next she was sent to St. William High School in Knottsville, Ky., with the commission to consolidate that high school with St. Mary High School in Whitesville to form Trinity High School. No easy task! She returned to St. Romuald where she discovered she was teaching children of her former students. Next, she went to Lourdes High School in Nebraska City, Neb., where her first year was interrupted with drastic cancer surgery and a half-year in Louisville taking radiation treatments. In 1979, she came home to teach in the Academy until it closed in 1983. She then taught math part-time at Brescia College and was director of hospitality at our Guest House. At age 70, she gave up teaching at Brescia and became full-time director at the Guest House. After 10 years, she retired. In 2003 she moved to Saint Joseph Villa, where she received compassionate nursing care, kept her smile and dry wit, and gently embraced death at 5:30 the afternoon of April 29, 2010.
The Most Reverend John McRaith, Emeritus, celebrant, and Most Reverend William Frances Medley, concelebrant, offered the funeral Mass, May 3, 2010, in Mount Saint Joseph Chapel. Family, Ursuline Sisters, priests and former pupils and friends formed the procession to the convent cemetery for the burial of Sister Mary Regina’s remains.