She was born Edna Cayla Waldron on May 17, 1913 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father, John Waldron, was a barber, and her mother, Bertha Waldron, was a housewife. Edna attended Westport High School where she had the lead in a production of The Torchbearers. After winning a beauty contest she moved to Hollywood and was offered a contract with Hal Roach. In 1934 she was chosen out of three hundred actresses for a featured role in the musical The Merry Widow. She also appeared in the movies Reckless, Folies Bergère de Paris, and Our Relations. Her shapely legs earned her the nickname "The Gam Girl". Unfortunately her career consisted mostly of bit parts. On May 22, 1935 she married actor Jimmy Aye, the brother of actress Maryon Aye.
Edna and Jimmy were both injured in a car accident in 1937. The following year the couple divorced. They reconciled in 1940 and told friends that they were planning to remarry. On August 18, 1940 she was at her home babysitting her friend's eight year old daughter Catherine Bowman. While they were doing laundry a fire broke out and the little girl's clothes caught on fire. She desperately tried to save her but sadly Catherine died. Edna was hospitalized with third degree burns over half her body. Tragically on August 24 she died from her injuries at the young age of twenty-seven. She was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her final film, A little Bit Of Heaven, was released two months after her death.
