Born Donna Cozzoli in Plainfield, New Jersey, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in 1989 and was received into the novitiate in 1990. She made her first profession in 1992 and final profession in 1998.

After her first profession, Sister Mary Grace worked in pastoral care at Anthony’s Hospital in Alton until 1994. She then worked for two years as an aide in St. Francis Day Care Center and at St. Catherine Elementary School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was then transferred to St. Elizabeth Convent in Somerset, New Jersey, where she served the retired priests of Maria Regin House. In August of 2002, she was transferred to St. Joseph Convent in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she again served retired priests at Bonacum House. Returning to Alton in 2004, she did secretarial work in St. Francis Day Care Center and in St. Anthony’s Health Center. She then worked for one year in the household of the Archbishop of St. Louis, before being transferred to Washington, D.C., to accept the office of sister-in-charge and to manage the domestic services in the apostolic nunciature. She served for six years, and then was transferred back to St. Francis Convent in Alton, where she served in the office of sacristan before accepting appointment as the local superior of the convent in late 2020.

Survivors include two sisters, Joan Rooney of New Jersey and Carol Zmuda of Florida. Burial was in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.