EDITH Marie, born July 13,1949, grew up as an only child enjoying the dirt roads of Callahan, Florida with her mother, Ameila Harris Drayton. She was educated in Nassau County and graduated from the historical Pine Forest High school in 1967. Her graduating class only had 9 graduates, and their class remained very close throughout the years. After high school, she married her sweetheart Walter Cooper Sr. and birthed four beautiful children, Victoria, Walter Jr., Keva, and Terrie.
For many years as the proprietor of Designs by Edith flower shop, she created beautiful, unforgettable, and affordable arrangements for every occasion imaginable. Not only did she own a flower shop, she opened a successful consignment shop as well. Her favorite place to gather items for her store was her daughter Keva’s closet. She sold designer suits for $10.00 and $20.00, shoes for $5.00, jewelry, handbags, you name it, she had it. And If someone came to her shop in need and without funds to pay, she would give the items away. Her consignment shop was never about profit, it was another opportunity for her to serve. She also dedicated her time to seniors, making wig units, cleaning their homes, and driving them to church. She truly and genuinely had a desire to serve others.
Edith Marie was ordained to preach in November 1978 and in the early 1980’s, she was appointed as a Pastor of Henry Gordon AME Church in Jacksonville, FL. This pastoral appointment was instrumental in helping break down barriers for women being accepted in ministry in Callahan. She was never ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Subsequent to her serving as a Pastor of Henry Gordon AME, she then went on to serve as Pastor for several years in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1983, she stepped out on faith and founded House of Prayer for all People. She humbly began by having services in a revival tent in the field next to her home in Callahan, Florida. People traveled from near and far to attend these services. She began to travel extensively preaching the Gospel in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, and Texas just to name a few. Preaching the gospel and helping those in need was the life she lived. A virtuous woman, a prayer warrior full of grace, tenacity, and power.
Over the years, she served as a spiritual mother to so many all the while being the best mother she could to her four children and the best “girl granny” to her grandkids.
In December 2001, Edith was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. She would always say having cancer was never for her, it was for her to help someone else. Notwithstanding the diagnosis, she continued preaching the gospel and helping others. She started her annual Women in Red conference March of 2002; the color red signified the blood of Jesus and she was declaring His word from her recent surgery and forthcoming chemotherapy treatment.
Throughout her treatment, she always remained positive. In spite of losing her hair and losing weight, she smiled. When people would come to visit her, she smiled and prayed for them before they left her presence. She never once allowed the diagnosis to jilt her spirit. Once, she was well enough to drive she was back on the road preaching the gospel, visiting the sick and helping others. Her spirit and determination couldn’t be stopped.
On April 25, 2013, she was visiting her youngest daughter Terri and around 3 am, Terri received the call that her father had passed away in the hospital. This was truly heartbreaking to Edith Marie, the man she married, loved, and shared four children with was now resting eternally. Being the mother she was, she was instrumental in supporting her children during their grief. Edith, personifying the resilience and empathy that she was so revered for, unselfishly displaced her own grief to be the rock her children needed during that difficult time.
May of 2013, she was diagnosed with Metastic Breast Cancer. This time it was stage 4, and it was spreading rapidly. Twelve years later, the cancer returned with a vengeance, triple negative. The family was told that treatment would only be to prolong life. Faced now with a terminal illness, in typical Edith Marie fashion she wasn’t moved. She continued to help others even more. If people needed food, she fed them, if they needed help with bills, she paid them, if they need prayer, she prayed, no matter what she could find her hands to do she would help. All the while, she would reiterate that her work wasn’t done on this earth. She would always remind people that she was a blessed woman. Not speaking from the material aspect, but one of the reasons she made this declaration was due to her children being right by her side during the entirety of her illness. Her health began declining rapidly in 2016. She spent the entire month of June in the hospital. The end of the month, her oncologist came into her hospital room in tears stating he would be sending her home under hospice care. She told her children she was now waiting on Jesus. Her heart’s foremost desire was to be home when she was leaving this earth to go to her final resting place. She lived 2 weeks under hospice care, tumors protruding out of her skin, living in unbearable pain, and yet still not one complaint. As a matter of fact, during her final days, she was still praying for everyone who came to visit her, even the hospice Chaplin. On June 30, when her baby girl was getting ready to leave for the night, she told her mother dearest that she would be back tomorrow to see her. Almost abruptly, Edith Marie lovingly responded to her daughter that she wouldn’t be there because she was going home.
Terrie was stunned at the response but quickly remembered that one day, while in the hospital, she asked her mom to please tell her when she was getting ready to leave this earth. At that moment, her heart sank. Her other daughter Keva asked her, well where are you going, Momma? Edith Marie said with surety that she was going home and didn’t have any choice. Edith Marie worshiped until she went to sleep. On July 1, around 2 pm, she was pronounced deceased, surrounded by her loving children and grandchildren.
We miss you deeply Momma. Your labor was not in vain.