The daughter of Joseph and Alice Thompson Cravens, Edna was born on Christmas Eve, 1892, and lived with her family at Raywick, Ky., where she attended the public elementary school. She made her First Holy Communion and was confirmed in St. Francis Xavier Church. Edna’s high school years were spent at Raywick Public High School and at Mount Saint Joseph Academy.
Edna entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph on May 2,1915. She received the Ursuline habit on August 15, 1915, and the name Sister Josetta.
After two years, Sister Josetta made temporary profession and began her apostolate of teaching at St. Bernard School in Clementsville. Ky. She remained there for five years. Later assignments took her to numerous Kentucky schools: New Haven, Louisville (St. Columba), Bardwell, Curdsville, Philpot, Cloverport, Mayfield and Fairfield. In 1943, illness forced her to remain at the Motherhouse. During those years she was often able to substitute for teachers in nearby schools.
Sister Josetta went to St. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville in June 1950, where doctors removed a cancerous growth from her neck. She suffered intense headaches and dizziness and could not walk without assistance. After returning to Mount Saint Joseph, she continued suffering and spent three weeks at Mercy Hospital in Owensboro under observation. The doctors admitted her to St. Agnes Sanitarium in Louisville for treatment. A team of three physicians there pronounced cancer of the brain and blood in the spine. She was in imminent danger of a coma or a hemorrhage. Sister Josetta remained at the sanitarium for a week, then was transferred to St. Joseph Infirmary for a few days until the weather would permit an ambulance trip to Mount Saint Joseph.
Sister Josetta died in the Motherhouse infirmary on January 5, 1951. Following the funeral Mass, Sister Josetta’s remains were buried in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her Ursuline sister, Sister Mary Alice.