Sister Francis Joseph Porter, 79, an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph, died July 7 at Mount Saint Joseph, in her 51st year of religious life. She was a native of Owensboro, Ky., born to the late Joseph Oldham Porter and Frances Evelyn Hayden Porter.

Sister Francis Joseph was very prayerful and loved the beauty of nature. She was up early watering her many flowers or feeding a stray animal, but always made time to share a smile and a kind word for all who crossed her path.

She ministered in the Mount Saint Joseph Post Office for 28 of the past 29 years, most of those years as postmaster. She was director of food services at Maple Mount (1980-84), and a teacher in Kentucky at St. Denis School, Louisville (1966-67), Flaherty High School, Flaherty (1968-69), Mount Saint Joseph Academy (1967-68), St. Margaret Mary School, Louisville (1969-70), St. Peter of Antioch School, Waverly (1970-73), St. Francis of Assisi School, Loretto (1973-77) and St. Mary of the Woods School, Whitesville (1977-80).

Survivors include her sister, Betty Lou Abel, of Jacksonville, Fla., her brother-in-law Mike Cecil, of Chicago, nieces and nephews and the members of her religious community.

The funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Mount Saint Joseph, where visitation will begin Tuesday at 4 p.m., with a wake service following at 6:30 p.m.

Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory, Owensboro, is in charge of arrangements.

Gifts in memory of Sister Francis Joseph may take the form of donations to the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, 8001 Cummings Road, Maple Mount, KY 42356.