Born December 1, 1899, in Owensboro, Ky., Winifred was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Spalding Davis. Winnie’s home life was happy and free throughout her childhood. She and her siblings often listened to her mother play the piano and have family “sing alongs.”
In 1912, her father died from an injury received at work. Stricken with a chill that developed into tuberculosis, Winnie’s mother died in April 1914. Winnie helped care for her two younger sisters, Marie and Catherine, until she and Marie came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy in September of that year. Catherine followed three years later. After two years as a student in the Academy, Winnie entered the novitiate and received the Ursuline habit on October 24, 1916. She was given the name Sister Mildred.
In 1917, Sister Mildred was assigned as music teacher at St. Michael School in Fairfield, Ky. She also taught music at Rome and Holy Cross, Ky., and in Snyder, Dixon, Bow Valley and Nebraska City, Neb.
In January 1936, while at St. Bernard Academy in Nebraska City, Sister Mildred became a victim of influenza. She returned to Mount Saint Joseph. Despite the nursing care she received in the convent infirmary, she did not recover. She died on January 23, 1937. The Great Flood of that year created circumstances that made the funeral of Sister Mildred an historical event in the history of the community. Dangerously high water, sleet and freezing rain made it impossible for the embalmer from Owensboro to reach the Mount. As Sister Mildred’s body, wasted by disease, could not be embalmed for an indefinite period of time, the remains could not be taken to the chapel nor held over for the funeral Mass. Father Andrew Zoeller, Mount Saint Joseph chaplain, held the last rites in the infirmary. The procession to the convent cemetery consisted of the Mother Superior, the Council and Father Zoeller following the farm wagon carrying the coffin (due to flood water no hearse was available). As this was taking place, the Sisters gathered in the chapel for prayer. The following day Father Zoeller celebrated the funeral Mass in the chapel. Among Sister Mildred’s survivors was her Ursuline sister, Sister Thomas Marie. Sister Mildred’s remains rest in the convent cemetery.