Born April 6, 1904, in Knottsville, Ky., Mary Blanche was the third child of Martin and Sarah Gertrude Bowlds Mattingly. She was very generous as a child and assisted her mother in many ways with the family of five boys and eight girls. At age 17, she entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. On March 20, 1922, Mary Blanche received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Merici in memory of her cousin, Sister Merici Payne, who had died in 1920.
Novitiate days for Sister Merici brought out her generous and motherly nature which stayed with her throughout her life. Her first mission was teaching the lower grades at St. Martin of Tours School in Flaherty, Ky. She continued to be assigned as teacher of music and the lower grades. This ministry took her to schools in Kentucky at Clementsville, Earlington, Rome, Knottsville, Vine Grove, and Stanley. She also taught in Jeffersonville, Ind.; Glennonville, Mo.; and Nebraska City, Neb. Sister Merici was missioned at Mount Saint Joseph Academy for a number of years and served as prefect of the girls’ dormitory. She was also prefect of the girls’ dormitory during the time she was assigned to St. Bernard Academy in Nebraska City, Neb.
In November 1957, Sister Merici was hospitalized at St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville for cancer and a serious kidney dysfunction. In mid‑December, she was moved by ambulance to the infirmary at Mount Saint Joseph. She died on January 17, 1958. Msgr. Gilbert Henninger, Mount Saint Joseph chaplain, offered the funeral Mass on January 20, with the burial following in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her Ursuline sister, Sister Martin Gertrude.