Edith Virginia Toliver, 78, of Kewanee, passed away at 9:02 PM, Monday, April 30, 2012 at the home of her son.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, May 5 at Rux Funeral Home in Kewanee. Rev. William R. Toliver will officiate. Visitation will be held from 5:00-7:00 PM, Friday, May 4 at the funeral home. Burial will be in Pleasant View Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to charity of the donor’s choice.
She was born September 22, 1933 in Roanoke, MO, the daughter of Rev. Oscar William Dearl and Onetta (Thorpe) Blake. Survivors include three sons, Eddie Louis Toliver Jr., Gregory Lee Toliver and Rev. William Ronald (Carrie) Toliver, four grandchildren, Eddie Louis Toliver III, Rachael Marie Toliver, Alicia Ann Toliver and Nathan William F.B. Toliver and five great grandchildren, Gage Nicklous Peart, Cassell O’Neal Ronald Taylor, Myles Austin Lee Taylor, Veronica Mayorga and Kadejah Toliver. She was preceded in death by her parents and two daughters, Karen Elizabeth Toliver and Gwendolyn Toliver in infancy.
Edith attended Lincoln School in Huntsville, MO from 1938-42 and then Wethersfield School from 1942-50, where she received the American Legion Citizenship Award in 1945. She then obtained her Nurses Aide training at St. Francis Hospital in Kewanee. She had worked at St. Francis Hospital, K U Medical Center in Kansas City, KS and then as a private nurse at various locations.
She was a member of the Kewanee branch of the NAACP, the City of Kewanee Human Relations Committee, the Junior Choir and Ladies Chorus at the Second Baptist Church in Kewanee, was the Senior Choir President at the Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford, FL and a member of the Women’s Fellowship and Bible Institute at the First Congregational Church in Kewanee. Her hobbies included cooking, music, watching college and professional basketball and caring for others. She especially enjoyed her family.
