The daughter of Joseph and Melvina Lancaster Rhodes, Patricia was born Oct. 14, 1906, in Rhodelia, Ky. The Rhodes family lived on a farm and each of the 11 children had plenty of chores to do. While she was still very young, her parents moved to Flaherty, Ky. When she was 6, her formal education began in a public elementary school near Flaherty. Her parents were people of devout faith and worked for the establishment of a Catholic school at St. Martin of Tours, their parish church in Flaherty. Patricia was among the first to register in the new St. Martin School, staffed by the Ursuline Sisters from Mount Saint Joseph. After making a retreat at Mount Saint Joseph in early 1923, Patricia returned to enter the novitiate in June. She received the Ursuline habit on March 19, 1924, and the name Sister Mary Edwina.
In the fall of 1925, Sister Edwina’s first mission assignment was to St. Francis Xavier School in Raywick, Ky., where she taught the first grade. She also gave private music lessons and was organist for the parish. For 57 years Sister Edwina taught in the various Ursuline schools in Kentucky, New Mexico, and Missouri. In Kentucky she taught at Raywick, Lebanon (St. Charles), Peonia, Rome, Stanley, Holy Cross, Lyndon (St. Margaret Mary), and Louisville (St. Columba and St. James). She also taught at Wilhelmina, Mo., and at Waterflow, Grants and Farmington, N.M. She often served as teacher, principal and superior as well as parish organist and choir director. Sister was also an accomplished seamstress. While at Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, she designed and made the red and white uniforms for the band and made costumes for the operettas produced by the music department. Sister Edwina was a dedicated educator to the very end. For her second career, she obtained a library science certificate and served as the librarian in several schools.
Sister Edwina retired to Mount Saint Joseph in 1983 suffering from a loss of memory, but worked a light schedule in the community library for a short time. The memory loss progressed. Following a stroke, she died on February 28, 1990. Msgr. Bernard Power celebrated the funeral Mass on March 2. Among the family members in attendance were Sister Edwina’s twin nieces, Sister Mary Jane Rhodes, SCN, and Sister Anna Marie Rhodes, SCN. Sister’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.