Anna Semon was born at Lake Creek, Missouri on Jan. 6, 1883. Her father was born in Bohemia, her mother, in Missouri. She entered at Clyde on March 1, 1901, and was invested on August 5th of the same year. On August 5, 1902 she professed simple vows as Sister M. Ursula, and made her perpetual vows on Sept. 27, 1907. She had the privilege of celebrating her Golden Jubilee in 1952, and received Consecration of Virgins in Tucson in 1953.
Sister served the community in many capacities during her sixty-eight years as a professed Benedictine adorer. From 1909-1911 she made sacrificial trips with Sister M. Bernard collecting alms and soliciting enrollments for our Association of Perpetual Adoration. She was one of the pioneers in the Altar Bread word on a larger scale, and really put the department on a business basis. Mother M. John had her go to the Franciscan Sisters at Hartwell, Ohio to learn their methods. Sister worked sacrificially as the orders increased, doing the baking on small oil stoves. Simultaneously she was Prefectress at the Academy for a time, and during the year when many Sisters were ill with influenza, she had the Academy girls help to bake, cut and pack altar breads.
Sister was infirmarian at Clyde for some years, and tended the sick with self-sacrificing charity amid the inconveniences of the old infirmary. From 1929 to 1935 she was sacristan at Mundelein, and helped with some of the duties of the Subprioress. Along with Sisters M. Carmelita and Euphrasia, she was sent to Tucson in August,1935 to help prepare the small temporary convent and chapel for the opening of the Tucson foundation. She did much hard work and served as Subprioress for a time.
Sister became afflicted with arthritis, which gradually confined her to a wheelchair. In 1957 she returned to the Clyde infirmary, where she was bedfast for the last seven years of her life. She endured a very painful form of arthritis with loving patience and cheerfulness, her ever-ready smile being contagious. She spent long hours in prayer and loving communion with the Triune God, and would often say to others, "Oh, it's so sweet!"
Death came on Oct. 29, 1965 as the result of a stroke. She was eighty-two years old. Her burial took place in the afternoon of All Saints' Day, and the second Mass on All Souls was offered as a solemn Requiem for her. The third Mass was offered at the out-door altar on Mount Calvary, not far from her grave.