Sister Mary Ellen Jones

A very gentle, quiet, prayerful person

Mary Ellen “is one of those special, gentle women who knows who she is, what she stands for and what she doesn't stand for.” —Sister Marilyn Peot

Thomas and Carrie (Thigpen) Jones of Warrington, Georgia, welcomed daughter, Hazel Frances on May 12, 1928. Hazel grew up in a large Baptist family of seven girls and one boy. After high school, she worked for the telephone company in the Atlanta area. Realizing that she wasn’t satisfied with her faith experience, she began visiting other churches, trying to find one that seemed to better satisfy her desire to know God. During a visit with one of her sisters who lived in Connecticut, Hazel went on a tour of New York City. There, she visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the first Catholic Church she had ever entered. “The presence of Christ spoke so clearly that this was … home.” She took instructions to become a Catholic.

Returning to Georgia, she became active in a parish but was still looking for something more. She felt that God was calling her to become a religious, even though she had never met one. Her pastor guided her to Mother Caroline, a Sister of St. Joseph, provincial of the Georgia province. Hazel decided to enter religious life. Despite the fact that Georgia was a different province, their novices came to St. Louis for training. She received the habit and the name Sister Mary Ellen on August 15, 1955, and professed her first vows on August 15, 1957. She then went back to Georgia to teach at St. Francis Xavier in Brunswick.

In 1959, S. Mary Ellen was missioned to St. Joseph Male Orphanage in Washington, Georgia. Three years later, after teaching several months at St. Anthony in Atlanta (1962), she was reassigned to Little Flower in Mobile, Alabama.

The Georgia province became part of the St. Louis province in the early 1960s. When asked how she felt about that in her oral history, S. Mary Ellen replied, “I rejoiced quite well … I just saw more opportunity for enrichment, to be experiencing community life with a greater number of people.”

In 1965, Sister Mary Ellen found herself at St. Louis Cathedral Grade School in St. Louis for a year. She spent the following year at Fontbonne College finishing her degree in education. She then completed two more teaching assignments in Missouri: St. Roch Grade School in St. Louis (1967) and Immaculate Conception Grade School in Montgomery City (1968). The rest of her teaching assignments were in Georgia at the following grade schools: Blessed Sacrament, Atlanta (1969-1971, 1973-1975); St. John the Evangelist, Valdosta (1971-1973); and St. Mary on the Hill (1975-1978). During that time, in 1972, S. Mary Ellen also had her master’s degree in elementary mathematics conferred by Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, Missouri.

Sister Mary Ellen left the classroom for a year to serve as the assistant administrator at St. Joseph Convent in Marquette, Michigan. She then returned to teaching at St. Mary on the Hill in 1979 and remained there for the next 10 years.

In 1989, S. Mary Ellen joined the Nazareth Living Center Sister Care staff. She continued working with Sister Care until 2002 when she became a volunteer there.

Sister Nancy Corcoran recalls,

Mary Ellen was the perfect volunteer … she would do anything she was asked. That meant she drove sisters to doctor appointments, she swept the dining room, fed those who were infirmed, cleaned and waited on tables, worked in the laundry, wheeled sisters to Mass, and in her spare time, she could be found in the sewing room. Love exuded from Mary Ellen. She preached with her smile, her easy laugh and her quick wit.

In 2005, S. Mary Ellen retired at Nazareth Living Center. “It’s a beautiful place to be,” she said. There, she became part of the ministry of prayer and presence. “How blessed I am that God directed me to the Sisters of St. Joseph. It’s a part of my prayer of gratitude at all times.”

By Sister Helen Oates