Verena Ursula Edwards

Passed away peacefully at home in bed on April 18, 2026 at the age of 99.

Verena was born on March 15, 1927 in Basel, Switzerland, the daughter of Walter and Erna Kreis. A brother Freddy was born in 1929.

She first attended public school but then transferred to the Rudolph Steiner School Basel. At the age of 16 Verena began taking horseback riding lessons. In April of 1944 she transferred again and began attending the Mädchen Gymnasium (girl’s high school). That summer Verena spent a month in Les Diablerets, Vaud in the Swiss mountains to improve her French. Back in Basel on August 26th, Verena and her friend Rita Süffert rode horseback in a parade celebrating Charles de Gaulle’s entry into Paris and honoring the Swiss military. The next month troops were quartered on the ground floor of the Mädchen Gymnasium for a number of days, starting on September 18th; during that time Verena had no school but was sent out with classmates to fund raise for the Red Cross. November 20th was notable back in Binningen, on the outskirts of Basel, because shooting could be heard. Walter came home early at 4:30 reporting that the French were now in Alsace and that his factory had been closed because they were in danger of flying grenades. Artillery fire could be heard for 2 days running. Verena’s horseback riding lessons became sporadic after the accidental bombing of Basel by the allies on March 4, 1945. With the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 7th 1945, WWII came to an end in the European theater, and Verena joined the celebrations in city of Basel. In October the next year Verena and her friend Rita, traveled to Paris together – a long time dream come true. In April 1947, her graduation class went on a trip to Italy. War time damage could still be seen. Verena then spent one year at the Ecole Narguiledjian secretarial school in Geneva and took a summer job in Sweden at Mikaelgården, a home for the mentally challenged. She then started her first permanent job working in the secretarial pool at the Sandoz pharmaceutical company, where her father was a research chemist.

From a young age Verena wanted to see the world, and she was especially determined to travel to America. Undaunted by her parent’s refusal to cover the costs, she saved up enough money to pay for the trip herself. After securing a sponsorship with family friends in Los Angeles, she booked passage on an affordable cargo/passenger ship. Verena had just turned 23 when she started her journey in April of 1950. On board ship, departure was delayed due to fog, but they finally left during a snow storm the next day. Weeks later they passed through the Panama Canal where the commercial cargo was offloaded, and they finally docked at the Los Angeles harbor where her sponsors picked her up. It had been an eventful four week trip. Within 10 days Verena secured a job as an Au Pair with a doctor’s family in Brentwood, CA where she was responsible for taking care of their two little children. On her days off Verena often visited her sponsors and got to know the family architect Richard Neutra, who also lived in the Los Angeles area, as well as a circle of artistic and culturally significant friends.

Her sponsors eventually suggested that she attend college if she planned to stay in the states. After a discussion with Fred Engleman, a friend of the family who was teaching at Alfred University., Verena decided to apply there and was accepted. Traveling across America by bus, she arrived in Alfred, N.Y. on Feb. 3, 1951. Her studies focused on languages. She made extra money babysitting for friends.

After two terms at Alfred she transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison which awarded her two years of college credit for her European education and Matura scores. During the summer between schools Verena worked as a staff member at Camp Arcadia in Otisfield, Maine.

When she arrived in Madison she found a home stay near campus. She paid her way through school by working at the Rathskeller and reading text books to a blind fellow student. She focused on French Literature. During summer vacation she took a job at The Potter Camp on Blue Mountain Lake. At the end of her camp job Verena explored the New Jersey shore and places along the east coast with friends. She then headed to the Washington, D.C. where she went on tours of various historic sites. Returning to Madison at the end of September she resumed working at the Rathskeller. Classes began the next day. While at Madison Verena took a number of art classes and through them met her future husband James Edwards who had recently returned to the U.S. after having spent 2 years in Paris studying art on the G.I. bill. During the spring break of her second year Verena met up with friends and took a trip down to New Orleans and was shocked to experience the segregation of the south. In her senior year Verena was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and graduated from Madison with a Bachelor of Arts.

Back in Switzerland Verena spent two months at home with her family in Binningen and then in the Swiss Italian alps. After this hiatus, Verena began working in the office of family friend Michael Theurillat as a part time secretary. She also began life drawing and painting classes and attended lectures on Cervantes at the University of Basel. She spent many hours doing photography and making enlargements at home. When Verena found out that a number of U.S. friends were coming to Europe during the summer, she decided to extend her U.S. re-entry permit.

After 5 months, Verena’s last day of work was on April 15th 1954. During spring vacation Verena traveled to Paris with her brother and two friends. She traveled to Rome thereafter with her parents before meeting a university friend and spending four more days in Italy in towns along Lake Garda. In May Verena visited her aunt in St. Gallen and all of her other relatives there. Back at home Verena continued with her classes. She visited the Theurillats a number of times as well as childhood friends and relatives. On June 13th Verena started packing for her trip back to the U.S. Ten days later Verena headed to Paris and took a train to Le Harvre to board the SS Liberté which docked in N.Y.C.. Aboard ship she met Doris Edwards who had been studying art in Paris and would become a life long friend. Initially Verena stayed at the home of her friend’s parents in Brooklyn.

Verena had a hard time finding a job and therefore took a summer position at Potter Camp once again. While there she signed up for the Famous Artist’s mail-in course. When she returned to N.Y.C. she found a job at Stechert-Hafner booksellers as a bi-lingual secretary for their import-export department. In February of 1955 Verena began taking a Textile Design class at Pratt Institute. While Verena had been in Switzerland she and James had kept up a correspondence. In June James relocated to N.Y.C. and they resumed their friendship. On August 1st 1955 Verena, to her great joy, became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Verena and James friendship blossomed, and on January 13th, 1956 Verena and James married at All Soul’s Episcopal Church in Harlem. The newlyweds welcomed a daughter, Christine, on Oct. 2nd of that year.

At the end of January 1957 Verena had to take an emergency flight back to Switzerland with her infant daughter. It was feared that her father Walter would pass away. Luckily that didn’t occur and James traveled to Europe by boat to meet up with Verena in Paris where he showed her the Académie Julian; the place where he had studied after the war. They traveled to Basel where James met his in-laws in person for the first time. Then they retrieved their daughter who had been cared for by Verena’s maternal Aunt Edith during their absence and returned to Binningen to stay with Verena’s parents. Walter’s health was finally on the mend.

Initial months were spent exploring various places in Switzerland and visiting Freddy, who had recently married Yoli Baur. Freddy was chosen as Christine’s godfather. Verena and James considered permanently relocating, and with Freddy’s help James was able to find a temporary position at Hans Hort Studio. However, this did not turn into a permanent position, and the couple decided to return to the U.S. in October. They stayed at first with their friends, the Phelps family, but in mid November they were able to find an apartment of their own. In January of 1958 a daughter, Martine, was born to Freddy and Yoli and Verena was chosen to be her godmother. A son, Laurence, was born later the same year on August 19th to Verena and James. Verena’s Aunt Edith, had arrived from Switzerland to assist at the birth of both of the couple’s children. While in N.Y.C. Verena met James’ siblings, David and Jean, and chose Jean as godmother for her son.

At the beginning of November in 1960 the Edwards family moved to Princeton, N.J., purchasing a house previously rented by the Phox family. The Phoxes would maintain a friendship with the Edwards family for the rest of their lives. During a 4th of July barbecue at artist Rex Goreleigh’s Studio-on-the-Canal the Edwards family was introduced to artist Hughie Lee-Smith. During the summer of 1962 the family traveled to Switzerland for the first of many summer vacations visiting relatives there. The next summer the family took a trip to Provincetown, Mass., renting a small cottage by the sand dunes. In September James’ brother David invited the family to the Bronx to meet his daughter Tracey who had been born the year before. In 1963 Jean married her second husband Henry Lymore in Washington D.C. and subsequently moved to Kansas.

That year, since Christine and Laurence were now both in school, Verena supplemented the family income by working, part time, for Firestone Library. Once her children were in high school Verena’s position at the library transitioned into a full time job. For years she worked in the Duplicate Sales department but at the end of her career she was transferred to the Financial and Office Services department. In addition to her job she also did babysitting on a regular basis.

An addition was added to the house in 1966. It would serve as a studio for James, and allow the children to have rooms of their own. In November David, his wife Muriel and Tracey came to Princeton to celebrate their first Thanksgiving together. During the summer of 1967 the Phelps family came to visit so they could hear their son Eddy sing with the Harlem Boy Choir. Jean got re-married that year to Joe Davis. Verena met her mother-in-law Nancy for the first time when the family traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit David for Thanksgiving; this started a tradition of alternating Thanksgivings between Princeton and the D.C./Maryland area. Richard Neutra and his wife Dione visited in 1969. Jean arrived in Princeton later in the summer with her 2 sisters-in-law Pat and April Davis and the rest of James’ immediate family members showed up a bit later.

In 1975 James began teaching commercial art at the Loft Gallery. Adrienne Hauben, who was originally from Holland, was one of his students. He introduced her to Verena and they became fast friends. James and Verena became acquainted with John and Ann Willis at an exhibition of black artists entitled Fragments of American Life at Princeton University’s Art Museum curated by Professor Willis. The Willises were another inter-racial couple and in addition they all knew artist Rex Goreleigh. Due to these commonalities the two couples became good friends over time. In 1979 Verena and Jim attended Christine’s graduation from S.U.N.Y. at Purchase and in 1980 the couple, Christine, plus family friend Doris, attended Laurence’s graduation from Princeton University.

In February of 1981 Verena’s niece Chantal arrived from Switzerland and stayed with the couple for a month before heading to California and spending time with Laurence. The family later spent summer vacation in Switzerland. In 1982 James won a trip to Las Vegas. While there they took the opportunity to visit the Hoover Dam. Starting in 1983 the Willis and Edwards families began a tradition of alternating Easter egg hunts and dinners at each other’s homes. The following year Verena and James traveled to Hermosa Beach to visit Laurence and the Neutras for summer vacation. Jean’s husband Joe, of 18 years, passed away in July 1985; unable to face the Christmas without him Jean came to Princeton with her four children and spent the holidays with James and Verena. The couple visited Jean and her four children in Kansas for the 4th of July the next summer. That September the couple hosted a farewell party for Adrienne who had decided to return to Holland. In 1987 the couple was invited to stay with Adrienne and her new husband Joop Bitter in Vlissingen enroute to visiting the Swiss relatives; Edith and Erna were both bed ridden in hospitals. The year thereafter Verena flew to Switzerland alone for her Aunt Edith’s funeral in January. She returned with Peter Hürni, her niece’s boyfriend. He was heading to N.Y.C. to do an internship at an American bank and would be staying with Christine’s in the city. That summer the couple traveled to Camden, Maine on a sketching and painting trip. Later in the year Jean’s daughter Crystal stayed with the couple for four days on her way home from a study year abroad in Germany. In January of 1989 Verena and Christine flew to Switzerland to attend the funeral of Erna Kreis. That July James and Verena were invited to Mystic Island in Ocean County N.J. by Jim's client Michael Beltranena, and spent the weekend there with him and his wife enjoying some boating experiences. In August the couple drove down to Cape May, N.J. with Laurence and visited the lighthouse.

One year later Verena and James traveled to Martha’s Vineyard at the invitation of Adrienne and Joop who were house sitting. By chance James ran into Art Buchwald at an art store and re-introduced himself: James had illustrated his Paris After Dark booklet while in France. The 2 couples stayed on the island until July 6th, glad to be together again.

In June of 1991 Verena’s husband James passed away at the age of 66; Freddy and Yoli arrived from Switzerland to give her emotional support. David and Tracey plus the Phoxes, the Lee-Smiths and the Phinneys as well as Mayor Phyllis Marchand attended.

Verena retired from Firestone Library after 28 years on the job in December of 1992. In January of the new year she started studying Russian. Verena was introduced to Adrienne’s friend from India, Kusum Dixit in March. This would begin a friendship that would last until Verena left Princeton. In May 1993 Freddy, Yoli and their son Pascal arrived with the Basel Boys’ Choir. They invited Verena to their performance in N.Y.C.. In August Verena took a long desired train trip across Canada visiting her former teacher Fred Engleman plus Marc Theurillat who was living on an Anthroposophical farm in Chase. She visited Butchart Botanical Gardens before heading down to Eugene, Oregon to visit her Wegelin cousins. From Oregon she traveled by train to visit her son in Palo Alto and friends in Ukiah, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco. She returned east stopping to visit friends in Chicago and Cleveland before returning home on Labor Day just in time to prepare for the visit of Jean and her new husband Cortez McKinnis. In November Adrienne and Verena visited Kusum for lunch together.

In April of 1994 Lewis Moore called to ask about the possibility of acquiring more paintings from Verena’s collection of her husband’s artwork. She agreed that they could discuss the matter but first Verena, Christine and niece Tracey flew out to California for Laurence’s graduation from Stanford University. Back in Princeton Lewis Moore stopped over in July and acquired 2 more of James’ paintings which he later included in his art exhibit entitled In Search of Missing Masters. Five days later Verena and Christine flew to Holland and visited Adrienne and Joop before meeting up with relatives in Basel. Verena and Christine welcomed Laurence at the airport. He would be living in Brugg during his stay as a visiting scholar at a technical institute as he completed his graduate studies. The two went to see where Laurence was situated after visits to relatives. Subsequently they visited cousin Fritz in Brienz at the Grandhotel Giessbach and his sister Lorli in Zug. Freddy and Yoli drove Verena and Christine to Frauenfeld to see their paternal grandparent’s old home and take photos on their way to St. Gallen where Verena did some genealogical research. They had dinner with cousin Peter Wegelin and his wife. In August Verena and Christine traveled to southern Switzerland to meet up with Laurence and his friends. They celebrated Laurence’s birthday in and around Ascona. Back in the U.S. Laurence returned from Switzerland just before Christmas and lived with Verena in Princeton for 3 months before moving permanently to California.

In 1996 Verena took a trip to Scandinavia to visit old friends from her times in Geneva and Sweden as well as Adrienne and Joop. That year Verena starting taking Pilates classes. In May the next year Verena was back in Switzerland with Laurence and Christine. Randolph, Christine’s friend, arrived as well. During her retirement Verena spent many years traveling back and forth to Switzerland to visit family, to California, where Laurence had relocated and the Neutras lived, to Oregon where Christine had relocated in 1998, and to Maryland where her niece Tracey and James’ remaining family members resided. In 2001 Verena traveled on a honeymoon trip with Christine and Randolph to Zurich, Vienna and Prague.

In later years Verena took up the study of Spanish once again. She met Emilse Valdez in her conversation club and helped her study for her citizenship test. For many years Verena was part of a team of puppeteers under the leadership of Caroline Phinney, raising funds for the Princeton Waldorf School. She was a long time member of Trinity Episcopal Church of Princeton where she helped out with the annual rummage sale with her friend Phyllis Phox.

In 1999 Verena moved from her long time home to a townhouse closer to town. Zulema Traylor, whom she had met through the Waldorf School, the Phoxes and the Phinneys helped her to move. She continued to garden at Caroline Phinney’s property and helped transport friends without cars. Verena maintained her life long interest in the arts, attending concerts, gallery exhibits and lecture series, visiting historic sites and viewing new architecture. After a visit to Laurence for his birthday in 2002 Verena flew to the island of Kauai at the invitation of her daughter for a 10 day vacation. Tracey arrived in Princeton for Thanksgiving and Laurence, Christine and Randolph all arrived for Christmas.

Verena was advised that she needed surgery for her glaucoma condition in 2004 and in April she checked in at Wills Surgical Center in Philadelphia. Zulema met her there and accompanied her back to Princeton by train. In July of 2005 Verena invited her niece Tracey and nine year old son to spend 12 days in Switzerland with her. Verena attended the wedding of Laurence to Katharine Sears on Kauai island in 2013 along with Christine, Randolph and Mrs. Willis. She was thrilled by the birth of her first grandchild, Nathaniel, in February of 2015. A second grandson, Samuel, was born in December of 2017 whom she traveled to California to help take care of for a week while her daughter-in-law attended a conference.

After living for most of her adult life in Princeton, N.J., Verena decided to move to Portland, Oregon to be closer to her children. While in Portland she attended Grace Episcopal Church where she took Tai Chi for seniors and often visited the Portland Family Church in West Linn. Verena continued to love walking, gardening, reading, traveling, writing in her diary, and corresponding with friends. In 2019 she flew to Switzerland for the last time with Christine and her friend Laila to celebrate Freddy’s 90th birthday. Throughout her life Verena consistently donated to various local, national and international charities.

In 2023 Verena was hospitalized for 3 days for a syncope event but was able to return home just in time for the visit of her son and family for Thanksgiving. In 2025 she was hospitalized for 5 days starting on Easter Sunday for a second syncope event. Verena celebrated her 99th birthday at home on March 15, 2026 and ought that she might make it to 100. She almost did.

She is survived by her brother Freddy of Switzerland; daughter Christine (Randolph Remmel) of Oregon; son Laurence (Katherine Sears) and grandsons Nathaniel and Samuel, of California; plus her nieces and nephew in Switzerland: Martine, Chantal, Catherine and Pascal and their children. In America she is survived by nieces and nephews: Tracey Edwards, David Davis, Crystal Davis, Dawn Gallon, and Jason Davis and their children plus extended family.

Verena will be greatly missed by family and friends.