Edna M Lawrence

Edna Mae (Davis) Lawrence, 88, of Rome, GA, passed away on October 26, 2022. Edna was born January 23, 1934, in Shannon, GA to James Bradley Davis and Eunice Carver Davis. She lived her young life in the Shannon Village and went to Model Elementary and High School. After graduating from Model, she went to Crichton’s Business College in Atlanta and upon graduation went to work at General Electric in Rome.

She married William (Bill) Fletcher Lawrence, her high school sweetheart, at First Baptist Church in Shannon, GA on July 4, 1954, on what they always described as the hottest day of 1954. They moved to Athens, GA while Bill finished college at the University of Georgia (he had started at West Georgia College in Carrollton). Upon graduation, Bill enlisted in the US Coast Guard and they moved to Norfolk, VA where their first daughter, Janet (Jan) Lawrence was born in 1958. Edna always claimed that every time she got pregnant, they moved. Susan Lawrence Gentry was born in 1961 after they moved to Marietta, GA. And William (Bill) Phillip Lawrence II was born when they moved back to Rome and Model HS. They attended and raised their children in North Broad Baptist Church in Rome, GA, and then went home to New Antioch Baptist Church in Shannon, GA in later life. Edna remained a member of New Antioch and at her death was their oldest member.

She was a loving mother and grandmother who taught her children many lessons in life that stuck (love each other, be kind to everyone you encounter, help those who are less fortunate, etc.) and a few that didn’t (clean the house on Fridays, don’t put a cup or glass on a table without a coaster, make your bed when you get up, etc.). She was mother and grandmother to a few “adopted” kids over the years, most recently the friends of her grandchildren, who all called her Nana. She learned that lesson well from Granny Carver, her own grandmother, who would tell you how everyone who visited her was related. There are no telling how many young lives she impacted with her work at Citizen’s Federal Savings and Loan/Synovus Bank. As her children left home they were able to keep up with friends through their visits see Edna at the bank.

Edna talked to Jesus frequently in recent months but would not share what they talked about leaving her children to worry that she was giving orders. She was also prone to start singing a gospel song at any given moment right up until her final days. Her family is comforted by knowing that Edna held tight to her faith through her dementia, even tuning into worship services on her iPad on some Sunday mornings.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Mildred Davis Simmons, and her husband, Bill, LTJG USCG. She is survived by: her children Jan Lawrence (Lindi Lewis), Susan, and Bill; grandchildren, Jessica Leigh Lawrence, Matthew Stephen Gentry, William (Will) Lewis, and Andrew Lewis; 5 nephews; 1 niece; and many cousins.