Mother Marie Joseph Butler was born Joanna Butler in County Kilkenny, Ireland where she attended Sisters of Mercy day schools. She entered the Sisters of the Scared Heart of Mary in France in 1876. She taught in France and Portugal and then traveled to Tarrytown, New York where her cousin had donated land to the Church. There she founded what was to become Marymount College. In all, she founded fourteen schools in the United States, three of which became colleges. She died in Tarrytown in 1940. (By John Osborne)