Mary Archer was born at Vesta, Nebraska, on September 10, 1885. During her adolescence she lived on a farm near Conception, MO., and with her sisters attended St. Joseph’s Academy at Clyde. One of the latter became a religious of the Sisters of Charity B.V.M. Mary entered at Clyde on November 24, 1903 and was invested on May 26, 1904. She was professed as Sister M. Regina on July 2, 1905 and made perpetual vows on July 5, 1913.

Sister was a first cousin of Sister M. Baptista Conway, and though the two of them had little in common, their families were closely knit. Sister M. Regina was not the scholarly type of person as were her sisters and her cousin, but was a faithful and devoted religious, zealous at prayer and at work, and exact about everything. She was serious and inclined to be stern, though also very kind.

For many years Sister operated the machine that pleated the collariums for the Sisters, which required exacting attention and skill. She spent some ten years at Mundelein, where she also pleated the Sisters' collariums, and was portress for a time. She died there on December 14, 1945 at the age of sixty, and was brought home to Clyde for burial.