Mary Pauline was born August 7, 1909, the seventh child born to John and Susan Wagner Frey of Owensboro, Ky. This Catholic German family helped build and support St. Joseph Church. Pauline began her formal education at St. Hubertus Academy (later renamed St. Joseph School) in September 1915. Her first teachers were the Ursulines of Louisville. When Pauline was in the third grade the Ursuline Sisters from Louisville withdrew from St. Hubertus Academy. Her education continued there under the direction of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. Her secondary education was received at St. Joseph High School. During her last two years, she added commercial studies to her regular course of studies. Following graduation, she worked in sales at a department store in Owensboro.
In 1932, Mary Pauline entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. She received the Ursuline habit on March 18, 1933, and the name Sister Patricia Ann.
Sister Patricia Ann began her apostolate of teaching at St. Charles School in Lebanon, Ky. Her second assignment was Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, N.M. She had an obsessive fear of the Indians so after summer school in Albuquerque, she returned to the Mount and was reassigned to schools in Kentucky and Missouri. In Kentucky, she taught in Marion County public schools at St. Mary, Raywick, and Holy Cross; Meade County public school at Flaherty; parochial schools at Curdsville, New Haven, Leitchfield, and Louisville (St. Columba and St. Ignatius). In Missouri, she taught at St. Theresa School, Glennonville, and Seven Holy Founders School, Affton. Sister Patricia Ann spent 20 years at Seven Holy Founders. While there her hearing became greatly impaired. She found it very difficult to accept the fact that her classroom days were over. However, she didn’t give up. She continued to work a limited number of hours daily at St. Ignatius School in Louisville teaching remedial reading.
Sister Patricia Ann retired to Mount Saint Joseph in 1983. She had some worthwhile hobbies that kept her happily occupied. During the last five years of her life, she lived in her own world of silence. Her constant companions were her rosary and her “Old Bear” which she held onto tenaciously. In January 1990, she developed a cold that developed into pleurisy. Although she had recovered sufficiently to resume her regular schedule, death came suddenly on February 9, 1990. Father Anthony Shonis, chaplain, celebrated her funeral Mass on February 12. Sister Patricia Ann’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.