Edith Schwartz, the daughter of a New York businessman George Schwartz, married Frederic Edward Clements in 1899. They met at the University of Nebraska, where Edith was a teaching fellow in German and Fredric was a botany professor.
Edith herself began studying botany, receiving a Ph.D. in 1906 and becoming the first woman granted a doctor’s degree from the University of Nebraska. The couple then began a lifelong partnership traveling the country and collecting ecological research together.
The Clementses retired in 1941 and continued their research with private funds.
Edith continued finishing their research manuscripts and writing articles in La Jolla, California, until her death (ca. 1969 or 1970). The Clementses had no children.