Emma Senseney Paull, born in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia on July 12, 1919, was the daughter of James Senseney Paull and Dorothy Miller. Emma Senseney Paull was named after her paternal grandmother, Emma Senseney, who married Joseph Paull. The Senseney and Paull families are well-known, prominent Wheeling families.

In 1937, a news article indicates that "Senseney Paull" was a freshman at Seton Hill College. It is not know if she graduated, but she entered the School of Nursing at St. Francis and graduated in 1944. She served in the Nurse Cadet Corps during World War II, and at some point, she becamse affiliated with the Maryknoll Sisters. When she died in October 1971, she was buried at the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation Cemetery, Ossining, Westchester County, New York.