Aubrey Carroll Edwards

A memorial service for Aubrey Carroll Edwards, 99, Lawrence, will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church. Burial will be in Washington, Ill.
Mr. Edwards died Wednesday, April 8, 2009, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, after a brief, final illness. He was emeritus professor of English literature at Kansas University.
He was born Aug. 25, 1909, in Davenport, Okla., the son of Rila DeWitt and Mae Brown Medlar Edwards. He grew up in Trinidad, Colo., and graduated from Holy Trinity High School in Trinidad.
Mr. Edwards received a Bachelor of Arts from Southwestern College, Winfield, in 1929. He was employed as a social worker in Winfield for three years. He received a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1938 and a doctorate in 1941.
He taught in the English department at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, beginning in 1940. In 1942, Edwards volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps. He attended officer’s training school and served as an instructor in bombardment and navigation at the San Angelo Army Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. He was honorably discharged with the rank of captain in August 1945.
After the war, Mr. Edwards taught for a year at the University of Illinois and then returned to Oklahoma State University for a year. In September 1947, he joined the faculty at KU. He retired as professor of English literature in May 1985.
Mr. Edwards founded the scholarly magazine Modern Drama in May 1958 and was its editor until September 1972, when the magazine moved to the University of Toronto.
He was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence for more than 50 years.
He married Virginia Ellen Busse on March 23, 1940, in Washington, Ill. She survives.
Other survivors include a sister, Ione Edwards Martin, Lynnwood, Wash.; several nephews, including David Martin, Edmonds, Wash.; and several nieces, including Elisabeth Shippey, Denver.
Mr. Edwards was preceded in death by three sisters, Ernestine Medlar Shepherd, Margaret Medlar Firestone and Elisabeth Edwards Rodman; and two brothers, Paul Medlar and Brownlee.
The family suggests memorials to First Presbyterian Church of Lawrence, 2415 Clinton Parkway, Lawrence, KS 66047 or the Lawrence Humane Society, 1805 E. 19th St., Lawrence, KS 66046.
Online condolences may be sent at rumsey-yost.com.