Mary Knipping was born at Howells, Nebraska, on August 9, 1895. Her father was from Germany, her mother from Wisconsin. Mary entered at Clyde on Sept. 25, 1917, and was invested on Feb. 9, 1918. She was professed as Sister M. Winfrida Feb. 15, 1919, made perpetual vows on Feb. 16, 1924, and received Consecration of Virgins in November 1952.

Sister was one of a large family who lived on a farm in Nebraska. Though her parents were hard-working and thrifty, the family often experienced privation and hardship in their younger days. As a consequence, Sister had great esteem for the practice of material poverty and was careful not to let anything go to waste. She was of a jovial disposition and enjoyed a joke and a good laugh. She had a strong faith, was prayerful, diligent and sacrificial, never shirking hard work and was considerate of others.

Sister M. Winfrida was a good cook and had charge of the kitchen at Clyde for a time. In 1928 she was sent to Mundelein as a pioneer member, and for many years managed the Altar Bread department there very efficiently, due to her desire for perfection in the privileged work of making the elements for the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

After returning to Clyde in 1952, Sister helped in the altar bread department for a time, and later did the infirmary mending. She was afflicted with arthritis, which caused painful swelling of the hands; also with high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries. During the last three or four years of her life she lived in the infirmary and was able to attend Holy Mass in a wheelchair until a few days before her death. She failed noticeably after her Golden Jubilee in February 1969. She became critically ill on Sept. 26, 1970 and died on the 29th, feast of St. Michael, at the age of seventy-five.