Nancy R. Edwards

1940 - 2025

Nancy R. Edwards passed away on April 12, 2025. She was born Nancy Jean Roberts on August 20, 1940, to William Wallace Roberts and Loretta Clausen Roberts in Memphis and was the older sister of William Wallace Roberts Jr. and Charles Guy Roberts.

Nancy's father was a homebuilder in the Memphis area and she was raised in a large home built by her father in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis. Her high school, Whitehaven High School, was just across the street from her home. She remembered well when, in the mid-1950s, a new neighbor named Elvis Presley moved into a large home down the street, called Graceland. Her dad advised her to "stay away from that place."

Nancy attended the University of Mississippi and Texas Woman's University, but did not graduate from either. Instead, when she was in her 40s, Nancy enrolled at the University of Memphis from which she received an undergraduate degree in social work, because she often said that she was a much better student the second time around. In 1959, she worked as a volunteer aid worker on the Navajo Nation Reservation in the Farmington, New Mexico area, an experience she cherished for the rest of her life.

While in college in Texas, Nancy met Martin Edwards Jr., and the two were married in September of 1962. They were married for 62 years, until Martin's death on January 1, 2025. Nancy's father took Martin under his wing and introduced him to homebuilding and real estate, launching him on a career that would span 60 years.

Nancy and Martin had two children; Martin E. Edwards III (born 1964), a lobbyist in Washington DC (married to Laura Saul Edwards), and Michelle Elaine Edwards (born 1967), an attorney, of Charleston, SC; and two grandchildren, Madeline Elise Edwards, a journalist in Beirut, Lebanon, and Martin "Elliot" Edwards IV, a medical technician and graduate student in Arlington, VA.

Nancy served in many roles over her lifetime including as a Lay Eucharistic Minister at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church. She also was an expert in making New Year's Day Hoppin' John, which she served to friends every year for decades at her legendary annual New Year's Day Hoppin' John party (described as one of the most coveted invitations in Central Gardens). Her favorite role, however, was "Fancy Nancy" and "Grandma" to Madeline and Elliot. They, along with her children, other family, and friends, will carry on her stories and cheerful spirit for many decades.

A service celebrating her life will be held on Saturday, May 31, 11 a.m. at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church 1720 Peabody Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104, followed by a reception in Trezevant Hall.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church (www.gracestlukes.org/give).