Edith Rainey Howard

Edith Rainey (Gregg) Howard passed away peacefully on April 24, 2014 at Magnolia Manor on St. Simons Island, Georgia with family at her side. She was 98 years old. Mrs. Howard was born in Creedmoor, North Carolina in 1915. Her parents, Walker and Mittie Poythress Rainey, and her siblings, Ruth Cornell, Wilkie Rainey, Ella Askew, Lillian Allred, Virginia Edwards, and Sadie Wood, preceded her in death.

Edith was married to Morris Gregg for forty years and together they shared the love of four children. Their much beloved daughter, Maxie Ann Frost, preceded her in death. After the death of her first husband, Edith was a widow for ten years before marrying Archie Howard whom she knew from her teenage years in North Carolina. A romantic at heart, she was happy to experience love and marriage once more. They were together for twenty years until his death in 2003.

Edith worked in the textile, retail, and hospitality industries and early childhood education, but her favorite vocation was homemaker in the fullest sense of the word. She was the center of her family, which though miles apart has always been close in heart. A giving and creative person, Edith inspired all who knew her with her grace, good sense, quiet humor, beauty, optimism, and her amazing ability to “make do.” She guarded her gallon size button jar, adorned doorknobs with just-in-case rubber bands, and always found uses for straight pins and bits of cloth. She delighted in sewing, decorating, painting, singing, and listening to a good story. She and her sisters regularly laughed until tears rolled down their faces only to be unable to explain what was so funny. This joyful release came to be known as a “Rainey Fit.” Edith enjoyed travel visiting all 50 states, Canada, Europe and Western Samoa.

Always loving and kind, Edith became even more open-minded, tolerant and accepting during her long life. She leaves behind to honor her life of Christian devotion, resilience, sweetness, and strength, daughters Kitty Starnes of St. Simons Island, Georgia and Rebecca Gregg and her partner Debra Sutphen of Rocklin, California, and son Ray Gregg and his wife Charlotte of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Also blessed by her memory and example are five loving grandchildren of whom Mam-maw was so proud: Randall Gregg and wife Celena of Anza, California; Cinde Kent and husband Hazen of St. Simons Island, Georgia; Jeff Frost and his wife LaDonna of Ft. Smith, Arkansas; Jana Frost of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Casey Gregg and his wife Lindsay of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her treasured great-grandchildren Judd and Max Finks; Jacki and Dalton Frost; Rainey, Rowdy and Autry Gregg; Bayleigh Clayton, Jakob Penka and Ana Clare Gregg will continue her legacy as will her fondly remembered nieces and nephews. As the last survivor of her generation in the Rainey, Gregg and Howard families, Edith’s life was blessed by many caring relationships in these families.

She left North Carolina in her thirties to live in Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Georgia. With each change she moved her church membership as her faith was the foundation of her long and happy life. She will be buried along-side Morris at Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Memorials may be made to the First Baptist Church, 729 Ocean Blvd., St. Simons Island, GA 31522 where she was a member.