Edith L. Willoughby

After a long life and a short illness, our mother, Edith L. Willoughby died on March 2, 2021, at the age of 97 at Summa Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio. She was the first born of Winfield Scott Schelley Lang and Ethel Mae (Cornell) Lang on February 18, 1924, in Syracuse, NY. She was predeceased by her parents, brother Gerald Allan Lang, sister Ruth Beverly (Lang) Hayes and her husband of 40 years Howard William (Bill) Willoughby. She is survived by her three children, Anne (Willoughby) McMillan (Stephen) of Akron, Ohio, Scott J. Willoughby (Sharry) and grandchildren Richard (Boni) and Tacy, all of the Kansas City, Missouri, area and Sally Cornell Willoughby of Akron, Ohio.

Edith’s parents moved the family to the country during the depression, where as the eldest, one of Edith’s responsibilities was going to the neighbor’s house for water. When her high school years approached, Edith enrolled herself in an academic high school for college preparation instead of going to the trade school. She worked a variety of jobs (one of her least favorites being frosting cupcakes as it was boring) and worked to put herself through school to be a teacher. No matter the circumstances or the responsibilities, Edith persevered.

During college Edith continued to work in a munitions factory and wrote letters to Bill who was in the South Pacific. Through the stresses of school and working, and having a boyfriend and a brother in the military, Edith’s strength of mind and character continued to see her through the middle 1940s. She graduated from Cortland State Teacher’s College in 1946 and married her childhood sweetheart in 1947 and they moved into married-student housing living in an 8 by 18 foot trailer with the bathroom across the road. Bill completed a bachelor’s degree in engineering and Edith completed a master’s in education at Syracuse University. They were gifted an Irish setter puppy on their first wedding anniversary. His name was Happy, as in Happy Anniversary. Happy’s favorite past time was tearing laundry off of clothes lines.

Bill was a facility manager for the New York Air National Guard and Edith managed life as the wife of a full-time military man and sometimes moved with him on temporary assignments. She was a stay at home mom of the 1950s and participated in officer’s wives activities, disliking golf and bridge games, but participating fully in the PTA and school activities. She sewed matching mother-daughter clothing, popular at the time, and made her own Play Dough for the kids. Keeping up with Happy was a full time job, but by then the Pound knew who he belonged to. Bill became the Deputy Commissioner of Aviation for the city of Syracuse as civil aviation stepped into the forefront of American travel.

Edith and Bill and Edith’s father purchased a shell of a new home on the waterfront in 1959 to be used as a summer retreat on the South Pond, near Pulaski, NY. Bill enjoyed working on plumbing, electricity, building walls and installing a kitchen and conveniences. The children spent all day in bathing suits. Edith read voraciously and started to go to auctions and to collect antiques.

During this era, the couple also built a home and they lived in the Syracuse area until 1964 when Bill was appointed Assistant Director of Aviation for the Kansas City, Missouri, airports. While living in Kansas City Edith returned to her roots as a teacher and worked in the North Kansas City School District as a junior-high teacher at Northgate Junior High School. She then worked simultaneously as a librarian at several elementary schools and had the privilege of assisting in the design of New Mark Junior High School. She was then selected as the first librarian at the school when it opened in 1973. The Learning Resource Center, as it was called, was modern for its time and furnished with comfortable chairs, a custom-made fountain, plants and the latest in audio-visual equipment.

In the spring of 1980, Bill was appointed the Director of Aviation for the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They moved into a 1908 house in the Overbrook Farms neighborhood on the west side of Philadelphia. Eventually Edith led a small group of friends and family and through diligent historical research, had the Overbrook Farms neighborhood designated a Historic District with the Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places in 1985. While she was living in Overbrook Farms, she became the librarian for the Overbrook School for the Blind. She later became their archivist and historian for the school helping to design a hands-on museum for the students as well as writing a book about the history of the 175 year-old school. She worked there part time until she was a few months short of 83 years old.

While she continued to work at Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Edith decided to return to Syracuse to be closer to her summer home and her long time friends from the Syracuse Normal School and Cortland State Teacher's College. In 2007 she retired from her position at Overbrook School for the Blind and moved from Syracuse to Fairlawn, Ohio, to be near her daughters. While there, she was an active member of the Fairlawn City Women's Club, which raises funds for local scholarships and PEO, a women’s educational scholarship organization, and the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Edith and Bill enjoyed traveling and after Bill's death, Edith continued her journeys. She visited at least twelve European and Asian countries On her 75th birthday she rode an elephant while she was visiting Thailand. But she really enjoyed her winter visits to Mexico where she visited at least twenty-five times, mostly in the mountain area outside of Guadalajara. She made good friends with local citizens as well as friends from Canada and Europe during her time in Ajijic, a village on the north shore of Lake Chapala, Jalisco.

Even at 97 years old, through Edie’s generosity and forward-thinking humanitarian attitude she was able to donate to her skin to Lifebanc to provide tissue transplants for burn victims and mastectomy patients.

Edie’s children learned the benefits of service through their parents. They participated in Scouting and had service-oriented careers. Edie was buried on Earth Day as a tribute to her support of our earth. Yes, she said she might consider herself a Tree Hugger. In her memory, Edie’s children decided to donate to an organization called Poco a Poco to assist the children of San Pedro Itzican, a village on the north shore of Lake Chapala in Mexico. The plan is to build a sheltered place for school children to eat and do homework. This village has a very high childhood mortality rate from kidney disease due to poor water and poor nutrition. The organization Poco a Poco (Little by Little) assists the residents of this village to help themselves. The women of the village cook and serve meals to 300 children 5 days a week.

A memorial service was held in Akron, Ohio, on May 21, 2021, at Billow Funeral Home in Fairlawn, Ohio, and she was buried at Pleasant Lawn Cemetery in Parish, NY. A party is planned in her honor at her summer home. Edie persevered through the solitude of the COVID quarantine, maybe due to her positive attitude and over nine decades of life, through childhood poverty, the Great Depression and a World War, she maintained her cheerful countenance to the end.

If you knew Edie, you need to have a shot of bourbon to remember her, as that is one of the things she said contributed to her long and healthy life.

Donations may be made to your local Nature Conservancy or to the Acute Palliative Care Unit where Edie faded away the last few weeks of her life and stepped off to meet Bill. Anne’s coworkers honored her with their excellent care. APCU Foundation 525 E Market, Akron, Ohio 44304. Donations also welcome to the family to support their memorial project in San Pedro Itzican, Mexico.