Edith studied with Daniel Chester French, and at the Art Students League of New York, where she won a sculpture prize and scholarships.

[1] She sculpted figures for the 1902 St. Louis Exposition's Liberal Arts Building, and in 1908 showed her sculpture Earth Mother at the National Academy of Design.

The exposition handbook stated: "In the presence of so much that is weighty and powerful, the popularity of Duck Baby is a significant and touching indication of the world's hunger for what is cheerful and mirth-provoking.

Parsons also created portrait busts and public monuments including a World War I memorial in Summit, New Jersey, and a fountain dedicated to John Galloway in Memphis, Tennessee.

A quote that appeared in an anonymous newspaper article in the 1920s praised her work.Though intensely reticent about herself one may, if privileged to enter that home, breathe there the spirit of the gifted woman who has been able to imprison in bronze the smile of a little child.