Martha Edna "Edna" Breithaupt was born July 26, 1885 in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario to parents Louis Jacob and Emma Devitt. She had seven siblings: Louise Evelyn; Emma Lillian; Rose Melvina; Louis Orville; William Walter; Catherine Olive and Paul Theodore. As a girl, Edna, as she was known, spent her summers at the Breithaupt family cottages, "Riverbend" on the Grand River near Bridgeport (now part of Kitchener), and "Bayview" on Georgian Bay in the Penetanguishene area, where her father had opened a second branch of his tannery business in 1885. The Breithaupts were devoted members of Zion Evangelical church in Kitchener and Edna was involved in many church activities during her formative years. After high school she attended the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, where she majored in art.

As an adult in Toronto, Edna founded the Art Students' League bringing art education to local children. She was an artist and patron of the arts throughout her life purchasing Giant’s Tomb Island, with the intention of establishing an artist’s colony; she even has a namesake island, "Aunt Edna’s Island" on Georgian Bay. In the 1940s, Edna established Wakunda Lodge at Sawlog Bay in the 1940s where she ran an art school with students staying for weeks at a time. She was also instrumental in forming the Kitchener-Waterloo Centre of Community Arts. Edna died April 13, 1963 and was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.