Born June 5, 1907, in Stithton, Ky., Mary Dennis was the only child of Martin and Nora Allen. Her father was a physician and from his previous marriage, she had a half-sister and a half-brother. Mary Dennis attended St. Patrick School in Stithton until 1918 when the U.S. Government took over Stithton and turned it into Camp Taylor, later Fort Knox. The Allen family then moved to Louisville and Mary Dennis attended Sacred Heart Academy, taught by the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville. On September 8, 1923, Mary Dennis entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph for a six-month postulancy. She received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Sylvester Marie on March 19, 1924.
Sister Sylvester Marie was assigned to St. Joseph School in Raywick, Ky., where she taught grades one through four for five years. She continued teaching those same grades at Lebanon (St. Charles), and Jeffersontown, Ky. She taught music at St. Francis and Holy Cross, Ky., one year in each school. Sister returned to classroom teaching at Mayfield, Ky., and Clementsville, Ky. (St. Bernard High School). Following four years at Clementsville, she returned to teaching the upper grade students in Kentucky at Browns Valley, Holy Cross, Peonia (Clarkson), and Fredericktown, then in Poplar Bluff, Mo. She regularly served as the teaching-principal and as organist for the parish church. She always gave particular attention to students with special needs and was untiring in her search for resources to meet those needs, either learning or material, or both. Her classroom was filled with works of art she created to make it a place of warmth and beauty conducive to study and happy learning.
Sister Sylvester Marie’s rapidly failing health caused her to retire at the end of the school year in 1982. She was admitted to Mercy Hospital in Owensboro where she died on September 1, 1982. The main celebrant at her funeral Mass was a special friend, Father Robert Bowling from Reno, Nev., formerly of the Archdiocese of Louisville. Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, chaplain, and Msgr. Bernard Powers were concelebrants. Sister Sylvester Marie’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.