Caroline was born November 22, 1901, the first of the 10 children born to John Webster and Frances Donahue of Clarktown, Ky. Her parents were great‑grandchildren of Maryland pioneers who settled on Pottinger Greek in Nelson County. When Caroline was 6 years old, she received her First Holy Communion and began her formal education at Clarktown School. In1914, the Ursuline Sisters began the school at Holy Cross in Loretto and Caroline was among the first students. She briefly attended Holy Cross High School, but graduated from Mount Saint Joseph Academy and entered the novitiate. On March 20, 1923, Caroline received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Rose Catherine.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Rose Catherine was first assigned to teach grades one through three at St. Alphonsus School, across the road from Mount Saint Joseph Academy. Other assignments took her to public and parochial schools in Kentucky, Nebraska, and New Mexico. In Kentucky she taught at Earlington, Stanley, Louisville (St. Paul), Raywick (St. Joseph), Flaherty, Fredericktown, Owensboro (SS. Joseph and Paul), Wax, Calvary and Knottsville. Her out-of-state assignments were in Paul, Neb., and San Fidel, N.M. Her final assignment was a return to Fredericktown as companion to her sister, Sister Mary Beatrice, who was teaching in the public school there.
Sister Rose Catherine retired to Mount Saint Joseph in May 1977. On June 12 that same year, Sister suffered a stroke caused by a blood clot at the base of the brain. She was taken to Mercy Hospital in Owensboro and later that day, was transferred by helicopter to St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville. Sister lingered for only a week. Father Thomas E. Donahue, a cousin, with three other priests, concelebrated her funeral Mass on June 21, 1977. Sister Rose Catherine’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors were her three sisters, Sister Jane Frances, OSU; Sister Mary Beatrice, OSU; and Sister Mary Camilla, SCN.