Obituary for
Thelma Edgar (Norton)
Thelma Norton Edgar died Friday, June 23, 2017.
She was 98 years old, born Sept. 5, 1918, in Choccolocco, Calhoun County, one of nine children of Grady and Caledonia Norton. She moved to rural Glencoe as a young child and spent most of her life there.
A celebration of her life will be Monday at 11:30 a.m. at Crestwood Funeral Home. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Grandchildren, Rev. Sam Lasseter and Leigh Waldrop Phillips, will offer eulogies. Special Norton nieces and nephews will provide music.
Mrs. Edgar will be laid to rest at Crestwood, beside Cecil W. Edgar, who preceded her in death in 1976. Daughter Myra Glynn Edgar Lasseter; sons-in-law, Gerald W. Waldrop and Tommy Lasseter; grandson, Travis Edgar; and her brothers; and sister also predeceased her.
Survivors are children, Callie Edgar Waldrop, Helena, Travis Woodrow (Kay) Edgar, Foley, John Cecil (Sue) Edgar, Perdido, Florida, and James Clarence (Gala) Edgar, Glencoe; and grandchildren, Leigh Waldrop (Kent) Phillips, Helena, Natasha Waldrop (Wayne) Jackson, Jacksonville, Samuel Edgar (Donna) Lasseter, Huntsville, Ashley Edgar, Wausau, Wisconsin, Mari (Craig) O'Mallay, Spanish Fort, Shane (Sarah) Edgar, Carriere, Mississippi, Shawn Edgar, Jacksonville, Adam (Elizabeth) Edgar, Morristown, New Jersey, Christian (Sherri) Edgar, Salt Lake City, and David (Dannika) Edgar, Glencoe.
There are 18 great-grandchildren: Hilary Phillips (Stephen) Hill, Nashville, Second Class Petty Officer John Britton Phillips, Portsmouth, Virginia, Callie Virginia, Jerry Wayne, III and Charles Henry Jackson, Jacksonville, Stormy and Braylan Lasseter, Huntsville, Sydney, Piper and Rainey Edgar, Foley, Landon Edgar, Wausau, Wisconsin, Johnaustin, Anna Grace and Baxter Edgar, Carriere, Mississippi, and Robert, Italy, Joseph and Caleb Edgar, Glencoe.
Also surviving is special friend and caregiver, Jennifer Harrold, Gadsden.
Thelma Edgar graduated from Glencoe High School and earned her B.A. at Jacksonville State Teachers College, majoring in English and PE. Her 40-year teaching career began in Alexander City at Benjamin Russell High School, where she met and married Cecil. With his assignment overseas as an Army Officer in WWII, she returned to teach at Glencoe. During the war, she was one of the "Rosies" who assumed jobs normally held by men when she coached boys' athletic teams.
During her tenure at Glencoe, she returned to college when called on to help the school gain and keep accreditation. Attending Jacksonville in the summers, she earned a Master's degree in Library Science and established and ran the accredited library. Years later when it was necessary to have a certified counselor, she attended the University of Alabama to receive a Master's degree in counseling. She closed her career as the GHS counselor when she retired in 1980.
She was proud to have been inducted in 1957 as a charter member of Alpha Delta Kappa, an education honor society. She maintained membership until her death. Thelma was a member of Etowah Teachers Association, Alabama Education Association and National Education Association as an active educator and retiree. She faithfully attended the Etowah County Retired Educators' meetings until she was 97.
Having become widowed four years before retirement, she had discovered there were no services for persons like her or for retirees in the Glencoe area. During those years, she enrolled in JSU once again to study gerontology. Upon retirement, she had a plan to change things in Glencoe.
Thelma approached the City Council and received approval to organize Senior Outreach Services. With that approval, she recruited other retirees for meetings, activities and fundraising. Eventually, enough money was raised to build the George Wallace Senior Center. Thelma oversaw and ran the many activities provided Glencoe seniors in the Center and took a salary of $1 a year.
Realizing the lack of housing for seniors, she worked with the Sisters of Mercy at the Holy Name of Jesus Hospital to build apartments behind the Senior Center. When the hospital was sold, she formed the non-profit, 501(C)3 Edgar Senior Care Foundation to assume and operate the apartment complex. In recognition and in honor of her work with and for seniors, the Board of Directors renamed the complex "Thelma Edgar Senior Living Community" to mark her 95th birthday.
She was a member of First Methodist Church of Glencoe, where she taught Sunday School, and held many other leadership positions. The organizations to which she belonged in retirement were numerous and all focused on bettering her community. She was elected to both the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature and the U.S. Silver-Haired Congress. She was a long-serving member of RSVP.
Pallbearers will be grandchildren.
Honorary pallbearers include residents of Thelma Edgar Senior Living Community, members of the Senior Outreach Program, members of Etowah County Education Retirees, and ADK Sisters.
Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made to the Edgar Senior Care Foundation, PO Box 5252, Glencoe, AL 35905. In the memo write "Memorial Thelma Edgar."
Crestwood Funeral Home, 2209 E Broad St., Gadsden, AL, 35903, is directing.
