The daughter of George and Mary Cleve Cambron Buckler, Frances Alice was born September 20, 1909, in St. Mary, Ky., one of nine children. She received her grade school education in the public school at Loretto. For her junior and senior years in high school she attended St. Charles School in St. Mary (Lebanon) staffed by the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. When she was 19 years of age, Frances entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. She received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Robert on March 19, 1930.
In 1932, Sister Mary Robert was assigned to Holy Name of Mary School in Calvary, Ky., where she remained three years teaching the primary grades. Later assignments were also in Kentucky: Fredericktown, Fancy Farm, Flaherty, St. Charles (Lebanon), Jeffersontown, Stanley, Peonia, and finally a return to Calvary. Because of ill health she spent 1973-1974 at St. Angela Home in Louisville.
She retired to the Motherhouse in 1973. During these years she assisted the nurses in the infirmary. Her humor, jokes, and stories made the days brighter for the residents. Her health gradually deteriorated. She died on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 1988. Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass held on November 4. Sister Mary Robert’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.