Mary Louise, the first child and only daughter of James Wallace and Earmena Catherine Hay Wilkerson, was born May 16, 1920, in Owensboro, Ky. Her father was a telegraph operator and her mother stayed at home to raise her daughter and the five brothers that came along later —Thomas Carl, James Wallace, Gerald Martin, Robert Louis and John Owen.
Mary Louise was baptized at St. Paul Church and at confirmation took the name Theresa. She began school at St. Frances Academy, taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. She transferred to St. Joseph School in grade five and completed high school there. She fell in love with the Ursulines who taught her. She particularly loved high school where she took voice from Sister Helene. She had the lead role in many of the operettas produced at school, sang in the church choir and on radio, and played in the band. On Saturdays during high school she worked at the Ten Cent Store. After graduation she got a job at KenRad.
Mary Louise was an enthusiastic, devout girl with a great devotion to the Sacred Heart. At an early age she felt a strong urge to be an Ursuline. In February of 1940, over the very strong opposition from her father, she entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. In a letter to Mother Teresita, her father stated that he would not “resort to legal means” to keep his daughter from entering the convent, but would indeed not permit her to “remove her trunk from home.” Mary Louise was greatly disturbed by her father’s attitude but her determination to follow the call she heard so deeply in her heart prevailed. On the day she received the habit and the new name, Sister Theresa Marie, her father had mellowed and demonstrated his pride in his daughter’s vocation. He died two years later. This again placed Sister Theresa Marie in a conflicting situation. “Should she leave community, go back home and help her mother with the five boys, the youngest only four years old?”
Sister Theresa Marie’s first mission was Fairfield, Ky. In her memoirs she writes that they “heated the house and cooked on a coal stove, her feet got frost bitten, they didn’t always have enough to eat, and she didn’t really know how to teach, but she loved it.” She loved all the classes she taught at other elementary schools in Kentucky: St. Columba (Louisville), Central City, Vine Grove, Knottsville, and Whitesville. She appreciated the experience of teaching at Seven Holy Founders in Affton, Mo., and in Lourdes High School, Nebraska City, Neb., but did not like being so far away from her mother and the boys. Her happiest years of teaching were at Catholic High in Owensboro and at Mount Saint Joseph Academy.
Sister had an AB in history from Creighton University, an MA in American History from St. Louis University, post-graduate study grants from various universities studying political science, politics and ideologies, American studies, economics, and English as a second language. In 1980, after 38 years of classroom teaching, Sister Theresa Marie began work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the United States Catholic Conference as director of the program helping immigrants and refugees located in Owensboro, Bowling Green and Paducah. She served on the Kentucky State Refugee Advisory Council working with refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam, Romania, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Costa Rica, Mexico, Cuba, Poland, Laos and Ethiopia. In 1994, the number of refugees began to fall off but she continued with immigration, doing the paper work for those seeking residence in Lexington, Bowling Green and Western Kentucky. She also served as chaplain at Daviess County Hospital. In 1997, she came to the Mount and served in transportation and pastoral care until 2007 when she herself became a patient in Saint Joseph Villa suffering patiently for the Lord to take her home. She died July 27, 2009. The main celebrant for her funeral Mass on July 30 was Father John Vaughan, assisted by Fathers Joe Mills, Richard Powers, Dave Glockner and Tom Kirkendoll. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.