Eula "Jackie" Montez Edwards

Virginia Beach - Eula Montez Towers was born in her Grandma Polly's house in Sumrall, Mississippi on 21 Feb 1927 to Mae and Bill Towers. Bill "Daddy" didn't arrive home in time for the birth. The story goes...When Bill found out what they had named his daughter, he said "That's one hell of a name to put on that little ole helpless baby, I'm going to call her Jack." She was called Jack until she was in third grade when a teacher added the "ie" for her name to become Jackie.

Jackie was the only child born to older parents Mae "Mother" was 29 and Bill "Daddy" was 38. Jackie's mother was a caregiver to her grandparents, one of which, Old Timey "Raiford Russell" fought in the civil war. Jackie actually knew her great grandfather and was able to listen to him tell stories about the war. He died when she was nine but had fond memories of him sitting on the porch in a cane back chair rubbing a pocket knife against the armrest with all the cousins and her sitting around listening to him.

Jackie's early life was lot's of moving around. He father was a locomotive engineer for steam trains all up and down the the south-east. THey moved from Mississippi to Alabama to Florida to South Carolina to West Virginia and to Suffolk Va in the course of 10 years (1930-1940) following the work on the trains.

She was able to ride the train with her dad at certain times. He had a special whistle for her, if she could make it to the next stop in time, she could climb aboard and ride to the next stop on the other side of town. She was very proud of her father.

Her mother was very playful, she would get down and dirty with the kids and spoke to them on the same level. Jackie remembers her mother as a person everyone called if something happened. Mother seemed to be a calming force and she was not gossipy. She was also known for always having a food garden of some kind. If she didn't have space on her own property, she would ask a neighbor that did, and she would tend it there. Mother always shared the excess. Jackie remembers her mother's love of fishing and baseball. Her Mother and a neighbor would get their children off to school, then high tail it to the fishing spot for an all day trip. Then they would share the bounty between the families. This may be why Jackie didn't care for seafood later in life, might have been overdone as a kid.

One of her favorite teachers, was a second grade teacher named Miss Addie Bird. She was stern but compassionate and had a wonderful understanding of children. Miss Addie knew that after lunch, get those kids out to play and play hard, then after recess, bring them in a read to them, calm their minds and their busy bones. Then after the rest they would be open to learning about the world. Jackie would later speak often of trying to remember what she had learned from Miss Addie when tending to her own children.

No matter where they lived, she and Mother would return to Sumrall, Miss whenever possible. Her mother's family had been in Sumrall since the homesteading of Mississippi. Jackie's mother was one of nine children to Grandpa Polley and Grandpa Johnnie. They were farmers and all the children except Jackie's mother, still lived on the property with their families. This meant lots of aunts and uncles and cousins for Jackie to enjoy when she visited. She would speak of house hopping during the summers, couple of nights at this house, couple at the next. She was also spoiled when she visited because she wasn't there all the time She would get away with sneaking cream off the top of the fresh milk bucket. They knew it was her doing it, none of the other kids cared about the cream in the bucket. The aunts and uncles would all pays special care to Jackie as she was Mae's only child.

As a teen, she was taught to play soccer by a new teacher, at that time soccer was unheard of, and basketball. The funny part is that her and her friends were too short for the regular basketball team so her and some of her cohorts put together a pee-wee team. They even talked the principal into finding an playing other pee-wee teams across towns.

At 19 years old, she moved into her own apartment and a downstairs neighbor, Lucille, just adored her. Lucille kept saying you just have to meet my brother. She told Lucille no, that the last thing she needed was to meet some navy man. Well, Lucille was sneaky, when Jackie was leaving her apartment, Lucille opened the door and pulled Jackie in and said " Here's the little lady I was telling you about Lin." As Jackie states it...fireworks went off, they locked eyes, said hi and fell in love right on the spot, Linier Latham Edwards the love of her life. They were married later that year, even told it would never last. They celebrated their 59th anniversary, the year Lin passed.

Married in November of 1947, she became an official military wife. Even after 3 daughters, Jackie would have loved a house full of children , but was told if she wanted to raise the children she had, then she couldn't have any more. Amelia Ann, Brenda Montez and Cassandra Lynn were the delights of her life. She LOVED being a mother. She loved playing with her children and in so many aspects, I think she was trying to have as much fun as her own mother had with her. She was involved in all their activities with school or church. Helped make costumes, chaperoned, helped with projects.

After Lin retired from the Navy, he decided real estate was the next path he wanted to travel on. Jackie was right by his side and during the 1980's they had a real estate business in Bay Area Realty, with 4 offices in the Hampton Roads area. They settled in Virginia Beach and bought property that backed up to the city dump...the neighborhood now known as Windsor Woods and the city dump, now a beautiful park called Mount Trashmore. They enjoyed the park quite often once their grandchildren, Eric and Me (Stephanie) were around. They would take Eric to the skate park and cheer him on and take Stephanie the playgrounds and lake side to watch for tadpoles.

As age crept up, they retired their real estate business as well to enjoy some retirement years. They enjoyed each other's company and really were still in love after all those years. Following a lot of loss in the family, Randy, Amy, Lin and Brenda, Jackie began to show beginning signs of Alzheimer's. As the surviving family, we all came together in her care and had the privilege of making her last few years the best they could be. As a family, we would like to thank the amazing staff at The Memory Center for creating the environment for her to thrive. Jackie's request was to have pine branches and pine cones as the decorations on her casket. We have saved pinecones from her pine trees over the years. Also, the branches that will be mixed into the arrangement came from a neighbor's house in the court, and we are pretty sure my grandma planted those trees too.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my grandma. I thought she was a pretty amazing woman and I am sure that most who came into contact with her would feel that way also.

In memory of Jackie:

Plant some daffodils randomly in the yard so you don't remember where they are until the spring and you have to mow around them.

Appreciate a pine tree (her favorite tree).

Paint your toenails fire engine red.

Give lots of hugs