Sculptor and painter Edith Gron was born Editch Dorthe Gron Rasmunssen in Copenhagen, Denmark, on February 19, 1917, to Vilhelm Andersen Gron and Sophie Rasmunssen. In 1923 her family, now including younger brother Niels, immigrated to Nicaragua through a government sponsored settlement campaign, fleeing economic struggle and hoping for a cure for Sophie's cripping arthritis in the warmer climate. They lived and worked briefly on El Espadilla farm, a coffee plantation in Matagalpa, before fleeing civil unrest and anti-settler sentiment in 1925. They eventually moved to the capitol city of Managua, opening an ice cream shop that would become the restaurant La Casa Dinamarca (The Denmark House). This afforded an education for the children at the Colegio Bautista, a nearby primary and secondary school.

A car car accident in 1931 in which Edith was thrown through the windshield, breaking most of the bones in her face, resulted in several surgeries provided by missionary doctors and an extended period of recovery. Despite this, she continued to study art. In 1942 Edith, now in her mid 20s, began to seriously pursue a formal art career. She entered the Escuela National de Bellas Artes Nicaragua, where she studied under sculptor Genero Amador Lira alongside Roberto de la Silva and Fernando Saravia. Her sculpture "Amo Muerte" earned the Ruben Dario Art Prize in 1943. The following year she traveled to Mexico City to study Classic Arts and Architecture at the Academy of San Carlos, and at this time her sculptural work earned her a scholarship to study at Columbia University in New York. There she studied cermaics and sculpture from 1946 to 1948, before returning once more to Nicaragua. 

From the 1940s through the early 1950s Gron was in a relationship with boxer and firefighter Silvio Turcio, who would become the model for several of her scupltures including one of her most famous: "El Relevo" (The Relay), in which one figure, kneeling in exhaustion, hands a torch upward to a standing figure looking up and out. Since its completion, the sculpture has come to symbolize the transfer of wisdom and knowledge, this work is recognized the world over, though many still do not know who the original artist is. 

This period of time earned her recognition from the Nicaraguan government who commissioned several busts and sculptures of national heroes, including military figures, politicians, activists, poets, artists, and more. She expanded her materials to include marble, cement, wood, and bronze, and she painted using an experimental mix of pigments that created textures resembling aged frecsoes. In 1964 she completed a bust in white marble of the famed poet Ruben Dario; this would be reproduced with permission and held in cities throughout the world. Gron created over 300 sculptues from 1959 to 1980, many of which are included in collections in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Spain, as well as Nicaragua. 

In the 1970s Gron develeoped mouth cancer and went through chemotherapy in Houston, Texas. Though it was a successful treatment, her overall health had begun to decline, including that of her eyesight. She stopped sculpting in 1981 and focused on painting and inlay woodwork. She was awarded the Ruben Dario Order of Cultural Independence in 1989. 

Edith Dorthe Gron died on March 15, 1990 when her cancer returned. For several years, her impressive legacy was mostly contained within the circles of people who already knew her; much of her work went unrecognized despite global appreciation by museums and private collectors. In 2010, a biography was written on the life of Gron by Spanish sculptor, writer, and educator Joseph M. Vivo. Since then, more people and institutions have began to take note of her lasting mark upon the art world and the history of Nicaragua in the 20th century. A sculpture garden in her honor was erected in 2026 in Managua, and a retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Spanish embassy in 2007.