"However great the number of years one may live, let the person enjoy them all, for all will pass away. For this is the meaning of life; to love and serve God; to keep His will in your heart, for one day He will call you home!"

The number of years for Sister Jane Frances Harrison when God called her home was sixty-five years, seven months, and eleven days, and she enjoyed them. She had been professed as a Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration for forty years, twenty-three of which were spent in the Mercy Hospital, Council Bluffs, Iowa, "keeping His will in her heart."

Jane Frances was born in Birmingham, Alabama to Isaac Fletcher Harrison and Margaret Mary McCue on January 23, 1919. She was the fourth child of the family which was blessed with eight children. From kindergarten through High School, Jane Frances was educated by Benedictines. She finished high school at St. Paul’s in Birmingham, where she won a scholarship to Mt. St. Scholastica College, Atchison, Kansas. She attended college only one year, and then took a course on Burrough's calculator, and worked over a year in Birmingham. She then accepted a position in Washington D.C., in a department that was a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. But after a year and a half a yearning for religious life prompted her to resign in July 1942. She began arrangements to enter the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration at Clyde, and paid a good-bye visit to her family in Birmingham and brother Ed, in the army. She entered at Clyde on October 10, 1942, feeling that a life of prayer was the best way to come closer to God herself, and to help others do so.

First vows were pronounced on August 26, 1944, with the reception of the name Sister Mary Praxedes. She went back to her baptismal name, Jane Frances, on Holy Saturday, 1974. Professed with her were Sr. M. Consilia Judge, Sr .Lucille Marie Beyer and Sr. M. Gaudentia Sommer. Sister M. Praxedes spent some time in the communities at Tucson, Arizona: October 7, 1946 to June 1948; and in Mundelein, Illinois: June 7, 1948 to May 28, 1949, before making her final profession at Clyde, September 17, 1949. She returned to Mundelein in April 1950, but in 1951 was afflicted with mental  illness that required hospitalization. Though the doctor caring for her for a long time believed she would never be able to resume community life, she improved so much in the 1970's that he recommended some work as nurses' aide, at the hospital. On December 11, 1974, she was welcomed back to the community at Clyde, and assisted in St. Mary's infirmary there, and in the reception room, until June 25, 1977, when she became a member of the St. Louis community. Again she worked in the infirmary, keeping the sick rooms clean.

On June 2, 1983 she discovered that she had a malignancy which had spread to the liver or further. She took chemotherapy treatments, and in mid-July resumed duties at the infirmary. In August she visited relatives in Alabama and Florida. After a CT scan on September 9th, chemotherapy was resumed. In March 1984 she moved to a room in the second floor health center, in May  1984 she learned of the further invasion of the cancer. She then gave up plans she had cherished to go, with her sister, Sister Eleanor, to Europe and Lourdes. As soon as she regained strength, she attended daily Mass again in the Adoration chapel, and continued to take care of herself, living with the community. The tumor continued to grow and the doctor told her on July 31st that nothing further could be done for her. Henceforth she was a bed patient, requiring nursing care. 

Her siblings Thomas Jay, Joseph Edward, and Sister Eleanor gladdened her heart with several visits during the summer months preceding her death. Death occurred on September 6, 1984, about 9:05 p.m., not long after a nephew, Paul Harrison had spent some time at her bedside. Her nephew Dr. Tom Harrison and family, living in Sikeston, Missouri, had spent a day with her earlier in the week. Preceding her in death were her brothers William and Fr.Timothy, O.S.B., and a sister, Sister Margaret, O.S.B.

 A Memorial Eucharist, attended by immediate relatives was concelebrated on September 10th, by the chaplain and a family friend, Msgr. William James of the City of St. Jude Montgomery, Alabama.

Sister Jane Frances loved life and had wide interests. In the first years of convent life she had done some art work, and when in Council Bluffs did some large paintings that she wished sold to help pay expenses. In St. Louis, she used to attend lectures, workshops, operas and other events, and often listened to cassette tapes. Her devotion to the Mother of God was evident in the many rosaries she prayed. As an Adorer she was very faithful. So too as a Eucharistic minister.. She remained smiling and cheerful to the very end, never complaining nor worrying. Someone remarked that her face became more beautiful as the days passed and she neared the eternal embrace of her Spouse. Her remains were taken to Clyde, and after a service there were buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.