Born October 22, 1898, in Uniontown, Ky., Lillian was the daughter of Adrian and Ann Spalding Buckman. She was trained in music from early on and while attending Mount Saint Joseph Academy during 1915‑1917, she performed on the piano at all the special feasts that were celebrated during the school year. Lillian entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph when she was 18. Following her postulancy she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Rose Agnes on May 2, 1917.
Sister Rose Agnes continued in her studies of music and had classes at the Louisville Conservatory of Music, and at DePaul University in Chicago, Ill. Her first assignment was St. Columba School in Louisville where she spent four years. Sister Rose Agnes had periods of teaching in Ursuline schools in Nebraska and Missouri, then spent the remainder of her teaching years in Kentucky classrooms of various parochial schools. Her one and only subject was music which she taught to all the pupils assigned to her through the years.
Retiring from teaching in 1972, Sister Rose Agnes returned to Mount Saint Joseph where she spent her later years. Death came to her on August 6, 1981, and two days later Father Bernard Barnes, MSJ chaplain, and Father Anthony Ziegler concelebrated her funeral Mass. Father Ziegler was homilist. Sister Rose Agnes was buried in the convent cemetery. Preceding her in death was her Ursuline aunt, Sister Mary George Buckman.