Miltrida (Miltreada) "Tillie" Edmonds (1906-1924)
 LHS frehman class, 1921 |
 LHS Roundtable Society, 1921 |
 LHS girls' basketball, 1921 |
 LHS fall Skyrocket staff, 1921/22 |
 LHS sophomore class, 1922 |
 LHS Itaretil Club, 1922 |
 LHS fall Skyrocket staff, 1922/23 |
 LHS junior class, 1923 |
 LHS Itaretil Club, 1923 |
 LHS spring Skyrocket staff, 1922/23 |
A July 17, 1924, Lowell Tribune artilce titled "Methodist Church Notes" (on page 1, column 6) contained the following paragraphs about cousins Evelyn Esty Potter and Miltreida Edmonds:
- We were grieved to learn of the sudden death of Evelyn (Esty) Potter at Madison, Wisconsin, Monday. She was a loyal member of the Church, always mindful of it when away as well as when at home.
Last week we drove to Hamlet to see Miltreida Edmonds, who is not at all well. She inquired of Lowell friends and was delighted to see us. We took her grandmother, Mrs. Edmonds, along with us. Mrs. Edmonds is carrying heavy burdens, but is sustained vy God's love and grace. Evelyn and Miltreida are both her grand-daughters.
The following unidentified newspaper article was in a collection owned by Lowell Town Historian Richard Schmal:
- Miltreada, daughter of Orville and Grace Edmonds, was born in LaPorte, Indiana, January 29, 1906. At five years of age she came with her parents to Lowell, where her father died. For some time she lived with her mother in Crown Point, then moved to Hamlet, where she completed her grade school course in 1920. In the fall of that year she entered the Lowell High School, making her home with her grandmother, Mrs. Nelson Edmonds.
"Tillie," as she was familiarly known, possessed splendid elements of leadership. She was interested and active in every phase of school life. She was leader in athletics and enthused players to their utmost. No game started until Tillie came. She was a member of the Iteratil Club and the Patty Club. She was ambitious, working far beyond her strength that she might graduate with her class of 1924.
Miltreada Edmonds was baptized March 3, 1921, and received into full membership in the Lowell Methodist Episcopal Church, April 16, 1922. She loved her church and Sunday school and served for a year as an efficient teacher. She carried into her Christian life the same buoyant, happy disposition that characterized her everywhere.
After her graduation she returned to Hamlet for rest and restoration. But the dread disease had taken toll of her resources. She fell asleep in the evening of September 30, 1924, at the Chicago Fresh Air Hospital.
Her mother and her stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Culp*, of Hamlet, did all that love could do for her. Besides her parents, she leaves one sister, Madge and brother Herbert, of South Bend; two brothers, Orville and Nelson, and two step-brothers, Raymond and Wesley Coup*, all of Hamlet, and one stepsister, Edith Dean, of Jackson, Miss. None more seriously feel their loss than her grandmother with whom she lived the past four years.
The funeral service was held at the Lowell Methodist church, Thursday afternoon. The pastor, Rev. C.A. Brown, preached the sermon from Psalm 16:11. The High school came in a body. Thirty-five girls of the Patty Club sang three comforting songs. Flowers were given in great profusion by Sunday school, Class of '24, by the High school and numerous others who would testify of their great love for this great-hearted girl. Six young men of the Class of '24 were pall bearers and an equal number of young ladies carried flowers. The church was filled to capacity. Scarcely has there ever been a funeral that touched young and old as did this one for this beautiful soul, Miltreada Edmonds.
The pall-bearers were: Ernest Wooldridge, Marshal Sanger, Maurice Miller, Claude Hayden, Harold Trump and John Larson. The flower girls were: Catherine Degnan, Helen Burroughs, Lyrill Taylor, Gladys Sprague, Madge Blanchard and Verna Nelson.
* NOTEs -- The spelling of Miltrida's Edmonds' first name was "Miltreada" in this article, but was "Miltrida" throughout the Lowell High School yearbooks. Also, the spelling of the last name of her step-father and step-brothers differed in this article: Culp - Coup. The obituary of William N. Hayden listed the name as "Coup."
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