Mary Frank was born on April 13, 1910 on a farm in North Dakota. She was the seventh of fourteen children, nine girls and five boys, born to Marianna (Young) and Windelin Frank. Her parents, of German descent, had emigrated from Russia.

As a child, Mary loved to sew, and gathered up the scraps left by her mother and older sisters. Always creative, Mary had hobbies throughout her life: embroidery, mounting medals, crocheting cincture, making plaques. Reflecting back on her childhood, Mary wrote, “My present interest and enjoyment of hobbies dates back to the joys and satisfactions of childhood, when due to poverty and the number of children in my family, my brothers, sisters, and myself made up and improvised most of our playthings. Growing up we were very happy. I was closest to my brother, Michael. Whenever there was mischief, it was the two of us. ”

Mary attended a country parochial school and was taught by the Notre Dame Sisters. After high school, she worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota where she worked as a dietician’s assistant and nurses’ aide for three years. She was told by a confessor there that she had a religious vocation, and was set to “wondering for quite some time just what it was that I was supposed to do.” Then she learned about our Congregation from the vocation booklet, Angelic Service, which had been given to her by one of the Franciscan sisters at Rochester. “I just knew this is where I was to be. I had been praying to St. Benedict— again, I do not know what or where I got that idea! ”

On May 15, 1929, Mary wrote to Clyde asking admission; she arrived at 4 am on June 25, 1929. She was invested on January 18, 1930. As a novice, she worked in the kitchen and sewing room. Twice a day she milked the cows. She was professed on January 31, 1931, and received the name of Sr. Mary Adelaide, by which she was known until 1978, when she returned to her baptismal name. She made her final monastic profession on January 31, 1936. During her early years at Clyde, she was infirmary cook for one year. Then she went to the chicken yard, to the workmen’s dining room, and then to the sewing room, where she made cucullas for four years.

Her first transfer was to Tucson, in 1940, where she made draperies for an interior decorator for about three years. She was also assistant infirmarian during that time. Then, transferred to Mundelein, she took a course in practical nursing under Sr. M. Patricia, and returned to Clyde to be infirmarian. Subsequent transfers were to Clyde, Kansas City, Tucson, St. Louis, and San Diego. She wrote, “San Diego was my favorite place.” She worked as infirmarian, in the AB, in the church work department, and in the sewing room. For a time at Clyde, she was also the dental assistant.

Sr. M. Dolores, who was prioress in San Diego when Sr. Mary was stationed there, reflected that, "Living with our Sr. Mary Frank for a good number of years taught me to appreciate her shrewd understanding of human nature, her practical grasp of affairs, and her devotion to our Congregation and what it stands for. She expressed this more in her dependable, willing assumption of varied tasks, her steady good nature and humor, than in words. Sr. Mary was both a skilled practical nurse and a fine seamstress. She liked to crochet and I still cherish the Navajo-patterned afghan she made with such artistry.”

Sr. Mary fractured her hip in 1997 and in 1998 her glaucoma progressed to total blindness. When one of the nurses brought her some juice at about 4pm on April 8, 1999, she found that Sister Mary had quietly slipped away. This was the exact hour that Sr. M. Cordula, who preceded her in death, came each day to pray the rosary with her. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in the St. Louis Monastery Chapel on April 12, 1999, with burial at Mt. Calvary Cemetery at Clyde the following day.