Anita Hazel Edwards

Anita Edwards was born on December 17, 1932 to Earl and Alma Maddin in Vernon, Texas. She went to be with the Lord on September 26, 2020, five years exactly from the time of her husband’s death in 2015. Service: 5:00 P.M. Monday, October 12, 2020 at New Hope Baptist Church,782 New Hope Rd. Boyd, TX 76023. Interment: 3:30 P.M. Monday, October 12, 2020 at New Hope Cemetery, next to the church. She was the third child in the Maddin family, joining her brothers, Charles and Don. They would all be joined seven years later by her only sister, Mary Jo Maddin. Growing up in Vernon and graduating from Vernon High School, she left to attend Baylor University. Two years into her studies, she met a young pastor in Markley, Texas, where her aunt and uncle were members. On September 5, 1953 James and Anita married. In 1955 she gave birth to her first-born son, Jim Jr, who was quickly joined in 1956 with son, David, and son, Bill in 1958. In 1963, she gave birth to her only daughter, Linda, who completed the family. Anita was a wonderful pastor’s wife and mother. With pastorates in Swan, TX, Tenaha, TX, Atlanta, TX., Monroe, LA, Port Arthur, TX, and Webb, TX. Anita raised her children alongside her husband in the ministry. It was in Port Arthur that Anita began working for the state in its welfare department. As the couple both retired, she was very grateful for her good retirement from the 20 years of service to welfare recipients from Port Arthur to Duncanville. The couple enjoyed full retirement in Grand Prairie where they watched their children’s families grow, seeing grandchildren and great-grandchildren added to the number. In 2010, Anita moved to Richardson, Texas where her husband was admitted into a nursing home and 2 of her children also lived. In Richardson, she was a 10 year resident of Twin Rivers Senior Living where she enjoyed the company of many friends, and was instrumental in the growth of a Sunday worship group within the facility. Loss within the community there was always difficult for her, but she always managed to take life in stride, move on from the loss, and renew her mission to welcome new residents, and make new friends, and be a part of that vital support system. Anita was a woman of unwavering faith and unconditional love. She brought grace and tenderness to every relationship she had. She was wise and humble and so sure of the love of her heavenly Father. Her laugh was contagious and her sense of humor lives on in her family. Her joy expressed in song and the piano, and her delicious recipes which she cooked, also live on in the generations which follow her. She loved life and was well loved by many. Anita is preceded in death by her husband, James Edwards, by her parents and her oldest brother, Charles Maddin; and one grandson, Eric Lilley. She is survived by her sons, Jim Edwards and wife, Gail, from Azle, TX; David Edwards and wife, Sandra, of Richardson, TX; Bill Edwards and wife, Becky, of Richardson, TX; and daughter, Linda Lilley, and husband, Gerald, of Pointe, TX; by her brother, Don Maddin and wife, Jo Lynn, of Forney, TX; by her sister, Mary Jo Maddin, of Wichita Falls, TX; sisters-in-law, Dete Maddin, EllaDean Bratcher-Burt; and by 6 nieces and nephews. She counted herself blessed to be Grandmommy to 17, and G-Gran to 31.