Mary Elizabeth was born on Aug. 9, 1920, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Martin and Sarah Shea Cunniff. She was the oldest of seven children. She had 2 brothers and 4 sisters, one of whom was Sister Mary Grace Cunniff, OSB, who passed away in 2015.

She attended public school for one year before transferring to a Catholic school taught by the Sisters of Mercy. After high school graduation, she enrolled in a business course and took the Civil Servants Exam. To her surprise she was offered a position as a stenographer in Washington D.C. She had never been away from home before and a cousin gave her the address of a convent there. The sisters gave her the address of a lady who took in girls with government jobs as boarders.

With her roommates she would attend Mass every morning and often went to evening church services that included exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Benediction. She also read about, perpetual adoration in a magazine her cousin subscribed to called Tabernacle & Purgatory published by the Benedictine Sisters in Clyde, MO.

Feeling a strong call to religious life and not really liking business work, she ended up only working in Washington D.C. for one year. She didn't feel a calling to apostolic works such as nursing or teaching. Instead, it was the prayer life of the Benedictine Sisters that drew her. "I decided I wanted to be in a place where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed.” She entered the congregation on July 4, 1942. “I was just thrilled with the chapel and wanted to spend a lot of time there,” she wrote. She made her first monastic profession on Jan. 29, 1944, receiving the name Sister Mary Stella, and took her perpetual vows on Feb. 19, 1949. She also had the honor of taking part in the Consecration of Virgins ritual in 1961.

She started out working in the correspondence department and then was the cook  in the infirmary kitchen, main kitchen and bakery at Clyde for 17 years. Her cooking skills were also utilized in San Diego, then Tucson and then a 14 year stint in the kitchen at the monastery in Kansas City.

It was in Kansas City where she would also quietly feed the poor who came to the back door with patience and kindness. Her skills not limited to kitchen work, she also worked in the altar bread department at Clyde and as a portress in Tucson after leaving Kansas City.

"After we were allowed leisure time, I took up piano as I always wanted to take lessons but never had the opportunity. I also loved flowers and started roses as I thought they would give joy to others besides giving me good exercise," she wrote.

The most recent years before she moved to Our Lady of Rickenbach health care center were spent in the Tucson monastery. Her quiet, peaceful presence was a magnet for people to come up to her in chapel and start a friendship that sometimes developed into weekly visits by donut-carrying friends, who needed a good ear to listen to their stories. Sr. Stella had that, indeed.

She was a steady, cheerful, faithful, and humble presence in all her years in community. She also had the reputation of being one of the best pie bakers in the history of the congregation.

A fall in the refectory at the Tucson monastery resulted in a broken hip which necessitated the transfer to the health care center in Clyde, MO. She was again united with her younger sister, Sr. Grace, who was already a resident, and they were often seen sitting together sharing quiet conversation. Sr. Stella would also sit in 'town square', a central meeting point, where she would greet all passersby with a gentle smile, a few words and just be a prayerful, peaceful presence.

Sister had been confined to bed for several days but asked to attend Mass on October 2, 2017 because she had a special prayer that she wanted to say for her sister Teresa. After Mass and a meal she said, "It’s a good day." Earlier, she had voiced that she "was going to heaven today."

Sr. Stella died at 3:35 the morning of October 3rd. Her funeral liturgy and burial at our Mount Calvary Cemetery in Clyde, MO, were on October 5, 2017.