Seamstress owned 2 stores in Blissfield
9/27/2006BLISSFIELD - Eva M. Edwards, 102, a seamstress who owned a children's clothing shop and a beauty salon in Blissfield and during World War II worked in a factory making airplane parts, died Sunday in the Lenawee Medical Care Facility, Adrian.
She had been in poor health for several years, her daughter Carolyn Piotter said.
Mrs. Edwards moved to the care center in 2002 after living in Blissfield since 1929.
She grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas, one of the middle children in a family of eight siblings. She went through the 10th grade in school and married William Edwards, a mechanic, in 1921.
They and their first child moved to Blissfield in 1929 in search of job opportunities. Mrs. Edwards stitched linings into coats at Richland Furs in Blissfield, and by the 1940s her husband owned a Mobil gas station that he kept into the 1950s.
During World War II, Mrs. Edwards interrupted her work at the fur shop to make airplane parts. From about 1958 to 1968, she and her daughter owned the Joy Shop, selling clothing for infants through 14-year-olds in downtown Blissfield.
They spent the next 20 years, from about 1971 to about 1991, operating a seven-station beauty shop, called Carolyn's Salon, in the same building. Mrs. Edwards did not do hair, but worked on bookkeeping and cleaning.
She was a member of First United Methodist Church of Blissfield for at least 65 years. She held the top office in the local Order of Eastern Star a couple times. And she enjoyed cooking, baking, and sewing for herself and her daughter.
"She was careful how she ate. She didn't drink. She didn't smoke," her daughter said.
Surviving are her son, Jack; daughter, Carolyn Piotter; seven grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.
Services will be 11 a.m. today in the Tagsold Funeral Home, Blissfield.
The family suggests tributes to First United Methodist Church of Blissfield.