Catherine was born February 17, 1906, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Spalding Davis of Owensboro, Ky. Her parents came to Owensboro from Marion County and were members of St. Stephen parish. Catherine was welcomed into the family by a brother and two older sisters, Winifred and Marie. She was six years old when her father died of an injury received while at work. In 1915, her mother became ill while assisting at Mass on Easter Sunday. What was thought to be a chill developed into pneumonia and she died in April. Through Father John Finnegan, the pastor, Catherine’s two older sisters entered Mount Saint Joseph Academy the following September. Catherine remained with relatives for two more years before coming to Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She eventually heard the call to consecrate her life to God as a Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline. As her sisters, Winifred and Marie, had done earlier, Catherine entered the novitiate. On March 19, 1925, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Thomas Marie.
Sister Thomas Marie continued her education and the study of religious life. When the 1925 fall session began at St. Raphael School near West Louisville, Ky., Sister Thomas Marie was assigned to teach the primary grades. In 1927, she was sent to St. Columba in Louisville where she taught a class of 21 fifth-grade boys. She was so successful that the ‘boys’ classroom was hers for the next seven years. Beginning in 1934, Sister taught for two years in Jeffersonville, Ind.
While teaching at St. Joseph School in Owensboro in 1940, Sister was diagnosed with cancer. She entered St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville for treatment in late February. Sister Antoinette Krampe went to St. Joseph Infirmary to be her private nurse. Sister Thomas Marie died peacefully on April 24, 1940. Following a wake service and Mass at St. Joseph in Owensboro, her remains were brought to Mount Saint Joseph. Father Andrew Zoeller, chaplain, Fathers Victor Boarman, John Glenn, and J.P. Hayden concelebrated the funeral Mass on April 28. Father Zoeller praised the untiring zeal, faithfulness, and fortitude of Sister Thomas Marie. Her remains are buried in the convent cemetery beside her Ursuline sister, Sister Mildred. Her other sister, Sister Winifred, had left the religious life five years earlier.