Edith Marie was born to John and Mary Kraus on June 29, 1892 in Chillicothe, Missouri. An only sister, Agatha, was born two years later. Widowed when Edith was only four, the mother supported the family by sewing. A few years later she married a widower, Mr. Kuhlman, who had a son and two daughters, the youngest about five. The two families grew up together and remained closely united through the years.

When about ten, Edith made her first visit to Clyde. Many such visits followed, as her mother was a first cousin of Mother M. John and Srs. Agatha and Innocence Schrader. From her first visit, Edith was convinced that her life's calling was to be a Sister at Clyde. Gifted with musical talent, she took piano lessons from a Sister of St. Joseph during her high-school years, often practicing three or four hours daily, even though from the age of 14 she worked part time as a telephone operator to help support the family.

After graduation at the age of 19, Edith asked her mother's consent to enter the convent, but was told to wait until she was 21. This was a painful sacrifice, but her ardent desire was fulfilled when she entered at Clyde on the eve of her 21st birthday, June 28, 1913. Six months later she was received into the novitiate, and made profession of vows on Jan. 20, 1913, taking the name of Sr. M. Thiadildis. (In April, 1971, Sister took advantage of the permission of the General Chapter to return to her baptismal name, and thenceforth was known as Sister Edith Marie.) She was perpetually professed on March 5, 1921, and received the solemn Consecration of Virgins on Nov. 16, 1952. She also had the privilege of celebrating her Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1965 and 1975.

Being already an accomplished pianist, Edith was assigned to give piano lessons even as a postulant. Having learned the rudiments of organ technique from the local pastor, it required only a short time of training to enable her to preside at the organ for divine services and community singing practice. Along with other members of the community, she enjoyed the privilege of being initiated into the rendition of Gregorian chant and impregnated with the spirit of the feasts of the Church by the renowned national instructor, Dorn Gregory Huegle, O.S.B. of Conception Abbey. Thus Sister was prepared to become an authoritative liturgist for the Congregation in future decades.

Closely scheduled music lessons to the pupils of St. Joseph's Academy, plus such down-to-earth tasks as scrubbing and waxing the Academy floors on hands and knees, were a part of her Benedictine life. But the high point was always the direct Divine Service, and also a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Enjoying good health and filled with fervor, Sister frequently kept the early morning hour of adoration which immediately preceded the long morning services: Lauds and Prime; a 20-minute period of meditation; then Holy Mass, Benediction, Tierce and Sext — all before breakfast!

From 1929 to 1931, Sister assisted Mother M. Dolorosa as Subprioress at Clyde. She was then transferred to our convent at Mundelein. On the death of the first Prioress of that community (Sr. M. Benedicta Forschner) on July 11, 1934, Sr. M. Thiadildis was appointed to succeed her as Prioress. From 1942 to 1947 she was Prioress at Clyde; then in Tucson for four years, and again at Clyde for a six-year term after this she became Prioress at Mundelein once again, and finally at San Diego from 1966 to 1968. As her health had begun to fail, she was relieved of administrative offices and returned to Clyde, where she fulfilled the responsibility of assigning Mass intentions for our priories, arranged travel schedules, and sometimes played the organ for Divine services.

While Prioress at Tucson, in 1950, Sister made the Holy Year Pilgrimage to Rome with Mothers M. Dolorosa and Carmelita, along with twenty-two Benedictine prioresses from the United States (at the behest of Abbot Primate Bernard Kaelin). Again, in 1952, when Pope Pius XII convoked the First Congress of Major Superiors of Women Religious of the world in Rome, she accompanied Mother M. Carmelita, then Prioress General. On November 21, 1956 Sister Edith Marie was elected First Councilor General and became Assistant Prioress General to Mother M. Carmelita Quinn until the end of: the term on November 21, 1962. She then became Prioress in 1961 at Mundelein for a three year term.

In 1976 Sister fractured a bone in a fall and was one of the first patients at our St. Benedict Health center in St. Louis. Due to arterial sclerosis, Sister’s memory gradually weakened. Even then, until about the last year of her life, Sister was taken daily to a piano, and despite failing eyesight, was still able to play some of the pieces she had memorized. Occasionally, too, she would play a duet with Sr. M. Theophane, also a graduate pianist, as they had often done in their younger years. In July 1981 her condition declined rapidly, and in mid-afternoon on  she quietly offered her final "Yes" to God. There were many Sisters at her bedside, including some of her Profession companions and others who had been associated with her through the years. Some of the family attended the vigil service the next evening, as well as the Mass of Christian Burial on the morning of the 24th. As usual, burial took place at Clyde the next day, after celebration of the Eucharist.

Many beautiful tributes were paid to Sister by those who knew and loved her during life. They were, in a way, summed up in the homily given by Father Richard Cleary, O.S.B. of St. Pius X Monastery in a Mass celebrated in the St. Louis chapel a few days later. Expressing his own esteem and that of others, he remarked that Sister had shown great kindness and understanding during her many years as Superior, and had attained great holiness of life. She was a religious of faith, of charity, compassion, kindness and humility; also of childlike simplicity and trust. She aided others by her gifts of wisdom and counsel, and shared her gifts of mind and heart generously and humbly in the service of God and of others. Her life reflected and enriched others by the development  of the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit.