Mary Carmel was born June 30, 1902, in Owensboro, Ky., the daughter of George Elmer and Mary Alice Hayden Morgan. She had three brothers and a sister. Her first school days were spent at the public school in West Louisville. Later, she attended St. Frances Academy in Owensboro. Her high school years were spent at Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph, following Mary Ruth, her sister, who had entered three years earlier. Mary Carmel received the Ursuline habit on March 19, 1921, and became known as Sister Rose Alice.
In September 1921, Sister Rose Alice began her teaching apostolate at St. Joseph School in Raywick, Ky., teaching grades one through four. Three years later she was stationed at St. Rose School in Blanco, N.M. She suffered a great trial during this year in New Mexico. Sister George Marie, her sister missioned at Farmington, died. Farmington was only 28 miles from Blanco. However, because of a severe winter storm, Sister Rose Alice did not immediately receive the word of her sister’s death. The telephone lines were down and the desert road from Aztec to Blanco was closed from snowdrifts. Sister Rose Alice arrived in Farmington only in time for Sister George Marie’s burial at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Waterflow. Sister Rose Alice returned to Kentucky the following year and spent her next years teaching all grade levels in both parochial and public schools in Kentucky: Raywick (St. Francis and St. Joseph), Holy Cross, Lebanon (St. Charles), Peonia, New Haven, Flaherty, Clarkson, Owensboro (SS Joseph and Paul and Immaculate), Mount Saint Joseph Junior College, and Brescia College. Sister Rose Alice also served for 17 years as supervisor of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Owensboro.
Sister Rose Alice retired in 1977 and returned to Mount Saint Joseph. She became a patient in the Motherhouse infirmary after suffering a stroke in 1978 that left her with partial paralysis. Following a massive hemorrhage, Sister Rose Alice died on February 1, 1982. Father Stephen Pirtle, a cousin, Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, and Father Anthony Ziegler, former chaplain, concelebrated the funeral Mass. Sister Rose Alice’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Preceding her in death was her Ursuline sister, Sister George Marie.