Virginia B. Edwards

Virginia B. Edwards, 98, died February 7, 2010, at her home in Lawrence after a brief illness.
The former Virginia Ellen Busse was born on December 30, 1911, in Washington, Illinois, to Paul William and Viola Cress Busse. In 1929, she graduated from Washington Community High School. Mrs. Edwards attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1933.
After college, from 1934 to 1936, Mrs. Edwards taught English and Latin at Lostant Community High School in Lostant, Illinois. She then completed graduate work at the University of Iowa, where she met her future husband, Aubrey Carroll Edwards. On March 23, 1940, the couple was married in Washington, Illinois.
The Edwardses moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1940, where Carroll Edwards joined the English Department at Oklahoma State University. Two years later, they moved to San Angelo, Texas, where Professor Edwards served in the US Army Air Corps for the duration of World War II. After the war, they returned to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where Mrs. Edwards taught in the English Department.
In 1947, the Edwardses moved to Lawrence, Kansas. From 1958 to 1972, Mrs. Edwards served as circulation manager of the scholarly magazine, Modern Drama, of which her husband was then editor. Mrs. Edwards also oversaw four family farms in Illinois and Iowa.
Mrs. Edwards was known for her kindness and generosity, as well as her love of animals. She greatly enjoyed two British literary contests, Nemo and Hide and Seek, the object of which is to identify brief quotations, mostly from poetry. Over the years, with different partners, she would enter as “Ann A. Lawrence,” often scoring close to the top, and in 2008, winning first place in Hide and Seek.
Mrs. Edwards was a long-time member of the Phi Mu Sorority, the Washington, IL, Historical Society, and, in Lawrence, the Douglas County Historical Society, the University Women’s Club, the Chancellor’s Club, and the Minervian Literary Club. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lawrence for more than 50 years.
Mrs. Edwards was predeceased by her husband of 69 years, who died April 8, 2009. She is survived by several cousins, including Norma Anderson and Mildred Himmel, both of Pekin, Illinois; her sister-in-law, Ione Martin of Lynnwood, Washington; and Catherine H. Ogden of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Elisabeth Shippey of Denver, Colorado, who cared for her in her final illness.
Instead of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, Lawrence, Kansas, 66047, or the Lawrence Humane Society, 1805 East 19th Street, Lawrence, 66046.
Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.