According to her son, Rella Emélie Coté was born in October 1912 to Victorie Côté and Flavie Cyr. She grew up in Eagle Lake and Fort Kent, where her father worked as a shoemaker. Rella graduated from grammar school at age 15. She was unable to attend high school as she helped her mother care for younger siblings. Rella left Fort Kent around 1930 and joined older sisters in southern Maine. She held various positions, notably working in a textile mill. She married Wilfrid Guignard in Biddeford in 1940 and passed away in 1988. Her body was laid to rest in Biddeford. Michael Guignard donated the certificate to the Acadian Archives in 2023.

Though a public institution, St. Louis School was staffed primarily by the Catholic Little Franciscans of Mary. It had a boarding hall in the 1910s and 1920s.