Edwina Lake

On January 10, the Knipling/Lake family lost our dear and loved matriarch. Edwina Hall Knipling Lake, the oldest of five children, was born to Edward Fred Knipling and Phoebe Hall Knipling on July 15, 1936 in Valdosta, Georgia where her father was an entomologist at a USDA field station. From there it was on to Texas, Oregon, and Florida before moving to Arlington, Virginia after World War Il. She attended Arlington Public Schools and as a teenager was President of the Cherrydale Methodist Youth Fellowship, a group that gets together and stays in touch to this day. She graduated from Washington-Lee High School in 1954 and from the Westhampton College of the University of Richmond in 1958. She taught English at Wakefield High School in Arlington for two years before marrying John Townsend Lake, a recent Cornell graduate and Navy ensign. John's engineering career took them to California twice; Japan; Newport News, Virginia; Connecticut; New Hampshire; and Alexandria, Virginia, and grew a vibrant family with four sons along the way.

Edwina volunteered in community activities wherever they went. Organizations she belonged to included; The American Association of University Women, Navy Officers' Wives Club, Junior Women's Club, a coop nursery school, and PTA. She also wrote a Sunday Navy News column for two years.

In 1976 the family settled in Alexandria near Mt. Vernon that was to be her home for the next 37 years. She went to work as a writer, researcher, and editor on federal projects on teacher staff development, ethnic heritage, and competency based vocational education. In 1981 her husband passed away at Walter Reed Medical Center. Edwina showed her resilience, one of her many strengths, following this setback and was able to complete her Master's Degree in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia the following year.

Edwina, like many, suffered from mental illness and challenged society to address these issues head on. The next several years for the most part were devoted to strong advocacy for mental health consumer empowerment with a variety of Northern Virginia organizations. An outgrowth of this was the 1998 J.C. Penny Golden Rule Award for Community Service.

Of ongoing attention was work involving family business and affairs. Over the 90s she served as secretary and business manager for a family real estate partnership and, as an assistant to her retired father, she typed and edited over 30 scientific papers on insect control.

In 2008 to be with family she moved to Leesburg, Virginia. Her outside interests included The Women's Club of Loudoun and The Senior Center of Leesburg where she played bridge, an ongoing passion of hers for her entire lifetime. Adversity struck again with the death of her son Dean in 2022, prompting yet another move to North Carolina, her 9th state and home state of her mother Phoebe and her Hall kin.

Edwina taught her family the power of kindness, caring and acceptance, while showing amazing toughness during times of difficulty. This, plus her dry wit and good humor, will indelibly stay with those who were fortunate to know her. Edwina is survived by her three siblings, Anita, Edward and Gary; her three sons, Doug, Kevin and Tim, and their spouses Sherry, Gail, and Danielle respectively; 10 grandchildren; 3 great grandchildren; and a plethora of nieces, nephews, cousins and in laws that she individually and collectively cherished. She was preceded in death by her brother Ron who passed in 2023.

In honor of Edwina’s life, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the Arlington Outdoor Education Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and/or to an organization for the advocacy of mental health reform of your choosing.

Please click on the links below under "donations" for more information on how to donate.