Edith B. Mcginnis

Edith Blackburn McGinnis passed away quietly September 28, 2010 after an unexpected, painless heart attack a few days before.  She was in her hundredth year, age 99 and 8 months.  Edith was born, January 29, 1911 and was raised in Friend’s Cove by her mother, Eva Smith Blackburn (1883-1969) and her grandparents, Sarah Belle (Annie) McClellan Smith (1857-1939) and Edward (Pap) McCoy Smith (1852-1933).  Edith’s father, Thomas Leon Blackburn (1882-1911)  was tragically killed in a Beegleton family-run sawmill accident when Edith was only 6 weeks old and her brother Norman Leon Blackburn, (1908-2006) was two years old.  She graduated from the Beegleton Harmonia (James) School, from Bedford High School, Class of 1927 and completed a year of Penn State college credit courses.  Edith became Chief Operator for the Claar Telephone Company during the nineteen thirties.  Since married women were not allowed to work for the phone company during those years, she resigned after it became known that she had married a young lineman, Floyd Hershberger (1908-1951).  The couple had one daughter, Eve, who survives.  Also surviving are one step-son, step-grand and great grand children, two nephews, three grand nieces, one grand nephew, and eight great grand nephews and nieces.  Edith is also survived by an extended family of cousins from Pennsylvania and Maryland who keep in touch with reunions, cards and email.

After leaving the phone company, Edith briefly worked as a secretary for the Concrete Materials and Construction Company on the Turnpike.  Edith liked to tell the story about overhearing her new boss say that he had called for a secretary and they had sent him a telephone operator.  Nevertheless, the very same boss urged her to stay with the company when it moved to Panama.  Instead Edith became the secretary for the County Superintendent of Schools, a position she held until her retirement, interrupted only by a year of teaching at the Robert P. Smith High School.  She was active in the Bedford community as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames, the Telephone Pioneers of America, the Bedford Senior Center, and the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees.  She was a charter member of both the Bedford Business and Professional Women and the Soroptimist Club.  She received awards for her volunteer services with the Cancer Society and with the Woods Church in Rainsburg.  Edith was also well known for her music career.  She played the organ first for the Bedford Methodist Church where she was a member, then for the United Church of Christ over the span of forty years.  She also helped organize and play for hymn sings at the Woods Church to support the preservation of the historic chapel and cemetery.  Edith began studying piano at a young age thanks to a gift from one of her aunts.  Throughout her life she loved music and playing.  She studied privately in Bedford with five teachers over several years and regularly drove to Altoona for lessons, recording her practice and exercises in her diary.  In her turn Edith offered lessons in piano and organ at the Koontz Music House and privately with student recitals throughout her career.  She counted among her pupils many who themselves later made contributions in the music field.  Each birthday for the past several years, Edith has been amazed and delighted to receive greetings from many Bedford friends who have remembered her from music, work and activities.  Edith has contributed pictures and stories about Bedford and Friend’s Cove to the Gazette Old Photo Album and has left a legacy of material to be shared in future editions.

Edith greatly enjoyed playing social bridge with the Bedford “fifty year club”.  She also played duplicate bridge where she met her second husband, George Reisner, Sr. (1893-1971), retired after serving as an agricultural emissary to Thailand.  The couple had many bridge friends in common and enjoyed several years together in their home at 238 S. Richard Street where Edith continued to live until 2002.  A few years after George’s death, Edith, married Orris McGinnis (1895-1984), also a Bedford bridge player, an engineer and a retired cartographer.  During their marriage, they wintered at their Orchid Springs condominium in Winter Haven, Florida.  After Orris’s death Edith maintained her residence and activities in Bedford until, at age 91, she moved to her own apartment in Gainesville, Florida, to be near her daughter.  They made many trips together, including a cross-country train trip to California, going from Cumberland to Chicago, through the west to San Diego, up the California coast to Portland and back across the lovely northern route to the east.  They also traveled to Bedford several times, to Montreal and Quebec, to New York City, to New Orleans, to Miami and made three trips to Europe visiting London, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, and Salzburg.  They spent several weeks at a time in Paris on each trip.  After moving to Florida, Edith continued to travel and to participate in Senior Center Activities and Oakview Neighborhood Watch.  She also entertained her friends every week for a fun luncheon at her home, for visits to restaurants and for her birthday celebrations.  Edith was fortunate to remain healthy and active throughout her years.  In her eighties she completed a series of computer courses at Santa Fe Community College and did bookkeeping, billing and accounting work well into her nineties.  Reading continued to be a lifelong enjoyment.  She was looking forward to the October semi-annual Gainesville Friends of the Library Book Sale to replenish her reading selections.

Friends and family will be received at the Timothy A. Berkebile Funeral Home, 214 S. Juliana Street, Monday, October 4, 2010 from 12:00 to 2:00 after which there will be a graveside observance at the Woods Church in Rainsburg.   In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Woods Church would be welcome.