Ursuline Sister of Louisville Mary Donata Kokot, O.S.U., age 98, died in the 76th year of her religious life on June 26, 2025, at Baptist Health Louisville. Sister Donata was born in Daguscahonda, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Bretz, West Virginia. She entered the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville in 1949.

Her first encounter with the Ursuline Sisters was at age 7, when the Sisters came every summer to teach catechism lessons to the children of Bretz, West Virginia. Sister Donata, one of five children, said, “I had never seen nuns before. I told my mother I wanted to be just like them when I grew up. I thought they were dropped from heaven.”

Sister was a primary educator for 48 years, teaching first and second grade in Louisville for 10 of those years at Saints Boniface, Therese, Helen and Clement parish schools, and at Sacred Heart Model School. She also taught at parish grade schools in Pittsburgh and Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, and in Cumberland, Maryland. Sister Donata and her dear friend, Sister Julienne Guy, taught together in Columbia, South Carolina. Sister Donata then taught for 22 years in Jackson, Mississippi.

After retiring from teaching, Sister Donata served as a medical records clerk at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1999 to 2006, and as sacristan at the Ursuline Motherhouse Chapel from 2012 to 2018.

Sister Donata earned a bachelor of arts degree from the former Ursuline College (now Bellarmine University) in Louisville, and a master’s degree in education from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She received the Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year Award in 1997.

Sister Donata was the daughter of the late Mark and Anna Markovich Kokot. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Barbara Kokot, and many nephews and nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces, as well as her community of Ursuline Sisters and Associates.

Expressions of sympathy may be made to the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville and mailed to the Donor Relations Office, 3115 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY 40206.