Marjorie Violet Edwards died peacefully at home on Sunday, October 8, 2023. Born September 28, 1925 in Aldershot, England, the daughter of William George and Jessie Emily (Watson) Blake, she was the second youngest of nine children.
Marge’s teen years were spent in a city at war—often sleeping in the bomb shelter in the back garden. Fiercely independent, she took a job at Briggs Motor Company handing out weekly pay packets to toolmakers making trucks for the British Army. She and her sisters enjoyed slipping out to the dancehalls at Covent Gardens and jitterbugging with the American soldiers. In the summer, they would spend time at the shore at Butlins Holiday Camp.
In 1954, what was meant to be a holiday to visit her youngest sister, Christine, in America, turned into a permanent stay when she fell in love with Robert Thomas Edwards. Bob had been a trainer pilot in the Navy, teaching aerial maneuvers. Once, after a midair collision over the Everglades, he bailed out of his plane and spent the night with a broken collarbone dangling over alligators until he was found. He received an honorable discharge and became a member of the Caterpillar Club. But it was working as an office manager at Trailmobile that he and Marge met. They were married on September 13, 1958 and lived briefly in Milwaukee before settling in Dearborn Heights.
Marge was devoted to her family. She was a patient and supportive wife and mother, looking for ways to help rather than judge. She took a keen interest in the everyday lives of her two daughters and their friends, often making dinner for classmates. Later, she helped in the care of her four beloved grandchildren, tending to them as infants, taking them to ball practice as kids, right through to attending school graduations and weddings. And she was an adoring auntie to her many nieces and nephews in America, England, and Australia. In fact, when the overseas relatives came for a visit, it was Marge who stayed up with them until two or three in the morning, sipping her much cherished sherry and chatting away (well into her nineties!) while the rest of the family snuggled into bed. Family for Marge included animals whom she joyfully doted on—the most recent of whom was her darling kitty, Carlton.
Politics were something Marge took quite seriously. She was known to spend entire afternoons watching CNN. Her thoughtful analysis allowed her to take on the most confident opponents, and usually come out on top. She was hip to Obama before he became mainstream, valued her right to vote, and used it to protect vulnerable populations. A feminist through and through, Marge was unafraid to speak her mind, a rare trait for a woman of her generation. She was woke before there was a word for it.
Although she became an American citizen in the late seventies, at heart, she remained a Brit: She taught her granddaughter how to brew a perfect cuppa, transformed her suburban backyard into a proper English garden, made a mean trifle as well as shortbread, and every Christmas led her family in a rousing round of God Save The Queen while Christmas pudding flamed. She never lost her accent. The best things in life were “wonderful” to her, a word that became that much more wonderful carried by her beautiful cadence.
Marge loved Tiger baseball beyond measure, in particular Lou Whitaker and Kurt Gibson, and even flew to Florida for training camp. In 1984, she attended several of the World Series games with her friends, sitting behind the players’ family box, eating her favorite Italian sausage. She was also creative and enjoyed knitting, sewing and making gifts for others. One year she painted everyone a ceramic Christmas tree and a pumpkin which are still in use these many decades later.
Marge worked at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers retiring in 1989. She was a member of Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn where she volunteered to help adults learn to read. She also volunteered to help with office work at Henry Ford Hospital.
For the last thirty-five years of her life, she managed arthritis and chronic pain. Whilst she rarely complained, it did take away her ability to do some of the things she loved sooner than she would have liked. But it also inspired her to do things like take arthritic swim classes in her seventies and eighties despite never having learned to swim.
She is survived by her two daughters, Diane (James) Heisel of Chelsea, and Nancy Mendez of Dearborn Heights; four grandchildren, Erica (Matt) Brockberg, Curtis (Taylor Erickson) Heisel, Nicholas (Zoeie) Mendez, and Ian Mendez; and five great-grandchildren, Beau and Griffin Brockberg, Rain Mendez, River Core, Luna Sharkey, and another on the way. She’s preceded in death by her husband; her parents; five sisters; and three brothers.
The family will hold private services. Memorial contributions can be made to Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit. Arrangements were entrusted to Cole Funeral Chapel in Chelsea.
You may use the form below to leave a public message for Marje's family. Please allow 24hrs. for us to review and post your comment.