Mrs. Cather was the first woman to serve as chairman of the West Virginia Independent Colleges and Universities (WVICU) and the first woman to serve as president and chairman of the board of the Greater Parkersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. She was a member of the Wood County Bank Board of Directors for 32 years and a founding board member for the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation.

Edith married William M. Parker, Jr. in 1941, and the couple restored a two-hundred year old house on a farm outside of Parkersburg. Soon after Edith married Mr. Parker, she began a career as a corporate executive, community leader, and mother of two sons, John and James. Widowed in 1959, Edith married attorney John S. Cather in 1969 and later moved to Colorado to be closer to her children and grandchildren; though she moved across the country, she never severed her ties to the area.

Mrs. Cather passed away at the age of eighty-nine. Through her estate, an endowment fund was created at PACF specifically in honor of Edie's long term committment to and support of the Foundation. The Funds generously received from her estate provide administrative support for the Foundation.