Born in Georgia and baptized Helen, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1955 and made her final profession in 1962. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Fontbonne College (now University) in St. Louis in 1967 and a master’s degree in mathematics from Central Missouri State in Warrensburg in 1972.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, Sister Mary Ellen taught at several schools in Georgia and a school in Alabama.

After earning her bachelor’s degree she remained in St. Louis and taught within the archdiocese at Cathedral School from 1965-66 and St. Roch School from 1966-67. She also taught in Montgomery City, Missouri, for a year before returning to Georgia to teach throughout the 1970s and 1980s, except for a year in Marquette, Michigan, where she was the assistant administrator at the St. Joseph Convent.

In 1989, she came back to St. Louis and served the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet community at Nazareth Convent, now Nazareth Living Center, until 2005 when she retired to Nazareth.

Funeral services are pending. Sister Mary Ellen donated her body to science.