One of the nine children of Richard and Rose Anne Holland Murphy, Elizabeth was born December 29, 1903, in Stanley, Ky. She attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy as a day student through the years 1917-1928, receiving her elementary, secondary and junior college education. Elizabeth entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph on September 7, 1927, but continued college classes during that academic year. Elizabeth received the Ursuline habit and was given the name Sister Rose Beatrice on March 19, 1928.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Rose Beatrice was first assigned to St. Columba School in Louisville, teaching the middle grades for one year. She then taught the middle grades at St. Joseph School in Raywick, Ky., for one year and at Mount Saint Joseph Academy for one year. She then began full-time study at Nazareth College in Louisville (1933-1935) before beginning to teach in the following Kentucky high schools: St. Peter in Waverly, Holy Trinity in Fredericktown, St. Anthony in Clarkson, St. Charles in Lebanon, and St. Catherine in New Haven. In October 1961, her fifth year at St. Catherine, Sister was diagnosed with an advanced stage of carcinoma of the colon. Despite surgery at St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville and experimental treatment with of new drug at Mercy Hospital in Owensboro, the prognosis was life expectancy of one or two months.
Sister Rose Beatrice died on November 7, 1961. Two days later, the funeral Mass was offered by her nephew, Father Thomas Aquinas Murphy, assistant pastor at St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro. Msgr. Gilbert Henninger, chaplain, delivered the sermon. There were seven priests in the sanctuary. Students and teachers from St. Catherine School in New Haven attended her funeral. Sister Rose Beatrice’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors were her two Franciscan sisters, Sisters Mary Daniel and Rose Mary, both missioned in Chicago, Illinois.