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Update: Sister Joseph Angela Boone retired from her full-time ministry at the Diocese of Owensboro in 2011, but served three more years as a consultant for the finance and administration teams at the Catholic Pastoral Center. She was Motherhouse annalist from 2014-17, and is now retired. |
Director of Administration, Director of Finance, and Chancellor (overseer of archives, all properties, all legal documents), for the Diocese of Owensboro. Chair of the Diocesan Building Committee. Chair of the Diocesan Administration Committee. Member of the Brescia University Board of Directors. Member of the Catholic Charities Committee. Member of Boulware Mission Board and Chairperson of the Boulware Mission Building Committee.
Bishop John McRaith says Sister Joseph Angela is “wonderful to work with.”
One would think it would take two or three people to fill all these important positions. But all are presently being filled by one person: Sister Joseph Angela Boone, an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph.
“Sister Joseph Angela is a religious Ursuline with a very deep faith and she lives that faith with the way she serves the people of the Diocese of Owensboro,” says The Most Reverend John McRaith, Bishop of Owensboro, and he should know. He has been her supervisor since she went to work in the diocesan office July 1, 1989.
There is a mutual admiration society on the second floor of the Catholic Pastoral Center where Sister Joseph Angela works:
“She is one of the most dedicated, intelligent, and caring individuals that I know,” says Kay Hardin, assistant finance director for the diocese.
“I’m so impressed with all of the different things that she handles,” says administrative secretary Elaine Thomas. “Somehow, she always manages to get the job done. And she’s a real good person, too.”
Secretary Elaine Thomas (standing) and bookkeeper Mary Margaret Drury (seated) both say Sister Joseph Angela is one of the most dedicated persons they have ever worked with.
“Sister is a very dedicated, hardworking person,” says administrative bookkeeper Mary Margaret Drury. “It is a pleasure to work with her.”
On July 1, Sister Joseph Angela will complete 17 years of service to the Diocese of Owensboro. Her years of service as an Ursuline Sister will total 59, including 20 as teacher, 19 in administrative work as general treasurer of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, and 17 in the diocesan office.
After more than a half century of dedicated work — to the good fortune of the diocese of Owensboro, Brescia University, Catholic Charities and the Boulware Mission — she has no plans to slow down, let alone retire.
For almost as long as she can remember, Sister Joseph Angela wanted to be an Ursuline Sister. Two of her older sisters were members of the Ursuline community — Sister Aloise and Sister Regina. Both entered the community when she was a young girl. “My parents were so proud of them,” she recalls, “they were so very special. As little children sometimes to keep us occupied my mother would say, ‘go write a little to your older sisters!’ That made it special, for them to be in the convent, and it was always something I wanted to do.”
A native of LaRue County, Sister Joseph Angela was one of 12 children raised on a farm near New Haven. Her father was a farmer; her mother stayed home with the children.
She attended elementary and high school at Saint Catherine School in Nelson County, where she was taught by Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph.
Following her graduation from Saint Catherine High School, she followed in the footsteps her two older sisters and came to Mount Saint Joseph as a postulant, the first step toward her becoming the third Ursuline sister in her family.
Three years later she began her teaching career at Saints Joseph and Paul School in Owensboro, where she taught third graders for two years.