Louise Frese was born at Coatsburg, Illinois on November 25, 1891. She entered our convent at Clyde on July 12, 1916, and was invested on February 3, 1917. On February 9, 1918 she made her first profession receiving the name of Sister M. Leonarda, and perpetual vows on February 16, 1924. She received Consecration of Virgins in 1953.

Sister was a tall, slender, quiet, conscientious and prayerful religious, exact in the observance of the Rule, and especially loved silence and prayer. She was neat and orderly, faithful in the practice of poverty and other virtues. For many years she operated the addressograph at Clyde. She also spent some years at Mundelein, Tucson and Kansas City priories, where she served as sacristan and portress and also helped with altar bread work, until failing eyesight (due to cataracts) made close work impossible. She had a stomach ailment and also became a victim of Parkinson's disease, which gradually wore down her strength and affected her speech. She suffered much, with great patience and with gratitude for every little service rendered her. Her fine sense of humor and her abandonment to God's holy will helped to ease the burden of her afflictions.

Though in a very weakened condition, Sister celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1968 with her companions, Sisters M. Theophane, Cornelia and Hyacinth. Sister M. Cornelia was adopted by Sister's family when a novice because she had no immediate family, and was a real sister to her. The last year of her life, spent in St. Mary's Infirmary at Clyde, was one of much suffering. She died on April 24, 1969 at the age of seventy-seven.