St. Clair County Obits

JESSIE LAVINIA JENKINS EDWARDS

St. Clair County Courier
23 February 1989
(Toby Jenkins Edwards
Jessie Lavinia (Toby) Jenkins Edwards died at the Sac-Osage Hospital in Osceola, Missouri February 17, 1989.
She was born December 9, 1904, at the farm home of Ggeorgia and Andrew Jenkins near Bates City, Mo.
Mrs. Edwards attended Bledsoe County School until eleven years of age. She attended Bryant School in Independence, Mo. one year, then Junior High School and graduated from Wm. Chrisman High School in Independence in 1922.
She attended Warensburg State College and Missouri University.
January 1, 1925 she maried Rider C. Edwards. Both taught school in Deepwater, Urich and Osceola.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwards purchased the "St. Clair County Republican" in 1932 and served as co-editors and publishers.
Mrs. Edwards served as Secretary of the St. Clair County Republican Committee, the Sixth District Republican Committee, and the Republican Editorial Association.
Along with her various responsibilities involving the newspaper, Mrs. Edwards also taught dancing in Clinton and Osceola in the 1930's.
In the 1940's, the Edwards organized "The Edwards Press" and "Hillbilly Printers".
In 1943, Mrs. Edwards was appointed Superintendent of Schools for St. Clair County, Missouri.
Mrs. Edwards also became the first woman in Missouri to serve on a jury under the provision of the new State Constitution when she took her place in the jury box of the St. Clair County Circuit Court. She was made foreman of the jury by her fellow jurors.
She was proceded in death by her husband, Rider C. Edwards, on April 20, 1970.
Rider and Toby incorporated "The Edwards Press" in February of 1970.
Surviving family members include a niece, Mamie Alice Edwards Warnick and her husband, Charles P. Warnick of Arizona, their three children, Ward, Tracy and Sean Warnick, and several cousins.
Funeral services were February 20, 1989 in the Sheldon-Goodrich Chapel, Osceola, with the Rev. Jack Kiefer and the Rrev. Dan Dellinger officiating. Soloist was Jim Sunderwirth with Gail Ingle, accompanist.
Casketbearers were: Coy Fleetwood, Walter Hollowell, Lewis L. Motley, Marvin Zeiler, Robert Smith, William Schatz.