Lawrence, who was called Noh Yeon-sa, was born in 1894 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In July 1917, she graduated from Pomona Valley Hospital Nursing School and got a job at the Red Cross Hospital. In June 1918, she was assigned to an army hospital and served as a Red Cross nurse in France at the end of World War I. On September 13, 1920, she was dispatched by the Northern Presbyterian U.S.A. and came to Korea to organize the second director of the Nursing Training School at Severance Hospital.

She spared no effort to cultivate nursing personnel who were rich in theory and clinical knowledge but also had a strong Christian faith and professional spirit. As a result of systematic efforts to reorganize the curriculum and secure faculty, the Severance Hospital Nursing Training School was designated by the Governor-General of Korea in 1924.

Lawrence, along with Esther Lucas Shields, contributed to the organization and creation of the re-election graduation nursing club and the Joseon Council, and hoped to become a member of the International Nursing Association.

In 1940, when Japan's pressure on missionaries intensified, she eventually left the country on November 16 by Japan's compulsory expulsion of foreign missionaries.

Edna Lawrence Teaching How to Treat a Newborn Child

In 1947, she was dispatched to Dongsan Christian Hospital again and visited Korea, and she worked as a nursing manager even at the age of 60 and burned her passion for the reconstruction of the hospital and nursing education.

When she was a nursing supervisor at a nursing school, excellent freshmen from all over the country entered the school and produced many excellent graduates due to the high level of education. Graduates were welcomed at any hospital across the country, and the clinical practice and English education of teachers and missionaries were very effective, so the Dongsan Hospital Nursing School was well-received in the U.S.

Lawrence resumed service at the hospital with missionary Dr. Lowe, and every official at the hospital voluntarily attended the worship before starting work every morning, and even all the staff could not enter the worship at once.

In 1955, Lawrence had previously had bad eyesight due to overwork, but her chronic illness worsened and she went return one's country, and in 1973 in Los Angeles, the United States, she was called by God for a diary at the age of 80.

Edna Lawrence with nurses at Dongsan Christian Hospital