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Edna Mae Penrod Gregory, 94, “scurried” to meet her Savior June 22, 2008, on a beautiful, sunny Arizona day, after spending a week visiting with many of her loved ones in her home.
Edna, an only child, was born in Morgan Mines, Ky., on Sept. 27, 1913, to Mae (Grundy) and Kay Monroe Penrod. Left motherless at an early age, she was raised by her father and stepmother spending many of her summers and parts of her teen years with her dear aunt, Leona Stewart, who lived to be 101.
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Shortly after graduation, she met a charming, hard-working milkman who was making a delivery to Aunt Leona’s house. Depression dating didn’t hinder the progress of that match, and on April 8, 1933, Edna wed Henry Walton Gregory.
The diminutive bride and her six-foot husband had and lost their first son, Gary Wayne, that year in Kentucky before moving to Bisbee, Ariz., where their next three children were born.
While Walton worked for Phelps Dodge as a miner, Edna stayed home to raise their two daughters who predeceased her, Marilyn June Guerrissi, (husband, Joe and sons, Greg and Michael) and Patricia Ann Delk (husband, Estel and children, Kenny, Kathy, Janet, Sheree and Robert).
Their son, Kenneth Walton (wife, Darlene and children, Scott and Denise) also was born at this time. When the opportunity for a better job developed in Detroit, the always energetic Edna took her brood back to Owensboro, Ky., temporarily where her last child, Warren Douglas, (wife, Peggy and sons, Brian and Kirk) was born in 1944.
Soon the family was together again in Detroit where Walton worked for Motor Products as a machinist, a job that paid more and was less dangerous than an underground miner’s work. Life was not to be so simple, however, so when that company closed for a time, it was back to Bisbee for another stint as a miner and then back to Detroit when Motor Products made a comeback. The family stayed in Detroit from 1950-57 before moving back to Arizona and into their final home in Sierra Vista in January of 1958.
In Sierra Vista Walton worked at various jobs in the water plant at Fort Huachuca retiring in 1977. Edna, the consummate crossword puzzle buff who worked only in ink, started as a clerk typist in 1958 on the military post, retiring in 1980 as an administrative assistant.
Along the way the devoutly Christian couple was active in Baptist churches in Kentucky, Detroit and Bisbee. Therefore, it is consistent with their beliefs and their walk with the Lord that their biggest legacy was in caring for their family’s needs and giving freely of their time, labor and resources.
Edna Mae and Henry Walton Gregory celebrated 54 years of marriage before Walton passed away in 1987. In addition to their five children, they were also blessed with 11 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Edna’s two surviving sons remember Edna, a woman with a remarkable memory, as not only the mother who would sternly threaten, “Wait ‘til your father gets home,” but as the person to whom they could talk about anything. An extraordinary mother and model mother-in-law who lived simply, saved everything and enjoyed her desserts — but not too sweet — Edna was the ultimate giver. And when life presented either rewards or problems, she calmly and steadfastly declared, “It’s the Lord’s will.”
Family graveside services will be held Saturday, June 25, 2008, at 11 a.m. at Memory Gardens in Sierra Vista. In lieu of flowers the family requests any donations be made to Casa de la Paz hospice.
