The daughter of James and Mary Belle Mitchell Thomas, Mary was born December 12, 1887, in Fancy Farm, Ky. She graduated from Mount Saint Joseph Academy in May 1909, and entered the novitiate that summer. On July 14, 1909, Mary received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Teresa.
Sister Teresa’s first teaching assignment took her to St. Peter School in Waverly, Ky., where she remained for two years. Through her years she taught at several of the parochial and public schools staffed by the Ursuline Sisters in Kentucky: Fairfield, New Haven, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Hardinsburg, Mount Saint Joseph Novitiate (director of novices), Peonia, and Holy Cross. In 1939, Sister was missioned to Glennonville, Mo. She returned to her first mission, Waverly, in 1943 for four years, followed by one year at Paul, Neb.
At Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Sister Teresa taught English and coached drama. She published The Eye, Arm, Spine of the Wilderness, a history of the Catholic settlement of Glennonville, Mo., and wrote poems using the pen name Merici.
In 1948, Sister Teresa returned to Mount Saint Joseph where she remained for the rest of her years. For several years she remained in relatively good health and was involved in the Academy and other activities of her own choosing. She was admitted to Mercy Hospital in Owensboro for diagnostic tests on December 16, 1961. She was still undergoing tests when she died quite suddenly on December 30, the forty-ninth anniversary of her religious profession.
On January 2, 1962, Msgr. Gilbert Henninger, chaplain, celebrated the funeral Mass. Sister Teresa’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Her only sister, Sister Diomede, also a Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline, preceded her in death.