Cecilia was the daughter of Samuel and Emma Hite Hamilton, born December 20, 1900, in Waverly, Ky. After her schooling, Cecilia entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph when she was 15 years of age. Following a seven‑month postulancy, she received the Ursuline habit on October 24, 1916. Cecilia was given the name Sister Mary Samuel.
As a teacher of music, Sister Mary Samuel’s apostolate took her to numerous schools in Kentucky, which were staffed by the Ursuline Sisters. She also taught music at the Ursuline schools in Indiana, Missouri, and New Mexico. Sister Mary Samuel was elected zelatrix (community secretary) in 1954 and held this position for six years, then in 1963 she was chosen as mother assistant. It was during this term that the crippling evidence of Parkinson’s disease forced her to retire in 1966.
Sister Mary Samuel spent her final years in the infirmary at Mount Saint Joseph suffering from Parkinson’s disease and she breathed her last on August 21, 1977. Celebrant and homilist for the funeral Mass was her nephew, Father Phillip Rogge, 0. Carm. He followed the phrases of Mary’s Magnificat to speak on the life of Sister Mary Samuel. Concelebrating with Father Rogge were seven other priests, among whom were Msgr. Bernard Powers and Father Anthony Ziegler, MSJ chaplain. John Thresher, her great‑nephew and a seminarian, was in the sanctuary. Sister Mary Samuel was buried in the convent cemetery.