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On Saturday, March 13, 2021 Heavenly Father called home Janie Adell Edwards Wright, 81, of Norwalk, CT. She was a courageous, intelligent, beautiful, and talented woman who gave a warm smile to those she met. She loved and looked after her family very well. She actively participated in her community and church. She will be immensely missed. Janie was born at a time when “separate but equal” was the law of the land and society in general was still under the throws of the Great Depression. Her parents , Will and Mollie Edwards, were sharecroppers and lived the adage, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without.” These early life lessons taught her the real meaning of value, personal worth, and the virtue of hard work. She always taught her children the balance between quality and quantity. In her own words she said, “I Janie Adell Edwards was born at home on December 10, 1939. I was told I looked small and wrinkled, but after 2 or 3 weeks I blew up like a balloon. At the time I was born we lived in North Carolina in a little town called Farmville. I lived in Farmville for 19 years with my mother, father, siblings, and other family members. When I was born my parents did not give me a name immediately. This led the census takers to list me as the ‘no name’ baby. So, my mother, Mollie Adell, gave me her middle name and her baby sister’s, who used to be my babysitter, Janie Essiebell’s, first name. That’s is how I came to be named Janie Adell. Growing up we lived 2 miles outside of the city. When I was 4 we moved to an old house. I remembered this so well because there were a lot of big red ants that would bite. Despite that detail, it was very pretty. The sand was white and we had a lot of flowers. What I loved about the old house was the setting. With the trees, including fruit trees, and wild berry bushes it was like a paradise. I was very happy living there. I was a shy, chubby, child who cried a lot. If you asked my siblings to describe me they would say I talked too much and took things that were not mine. However, I remembered that I liked to play around the house, make mud pies, play with the eggs the chickens would lay, walking in the woods, and having alone time. My favorite toy was my rag doll. My favorite place was playing in the fields. I liked that I could hide there from everyone. I was most content when I was playing outside drawing in the sand. I remember spending time with my maternal grandmother, Leora Moore Norville. She was a kind woman. She was kind to everyone she met. We would talk, cook, take naps together, and she would tell me about her childhood. It was a happy time.” When Janie was a little girl she loved school and learning. However, she contracted what she believed to be rheumatic fever (medical care was not as readily available back then, especially to the black sharecropping community of the Jim Crow South) and she missed a lot of school. She also had to forego school when it was time to put in crops, such as tobacco. Because of these things she did not get to graduate high school at the expected developmental time. However; this did not deter her and she attended night school to obtain her GED. She instilled in her children the importance of education, such that all of her children obtained a high school diploma and a couple acquired advanced degrees. In the sixties she joined many of her cohorts in the Second Great Migration of rural black southerners to points north. She relocated from North Carolina to Connecticut for better job prospects. This meant that she had to leave her young children behind with their grandparents while she strived to support them from far away. Eventually she did carve out a living and was able to reunite her family here in Connecticut. However, she will remind anyone who says otherwise that she is a Southerner, a county girl at heart, definitely not a city chick, not a Yankee. She settled in Norwalk, Connecticut and lived there for over 60 years. During that time she had many jobs and enjoyed several hobbies. At one point she worked at Star Laundry as a clothes presser. She took up the trade of soldering and electronics and a completed a class in upholstering. If she wanted a change in décor she would buy some fabric and reupholster the sitting room couch and make matching curtains. For a time she was a seamstress and she used her abilities to make clothes for many family members and friends. She was a talented gardener. She could grow gorgeous vegetables and flowers and brought joy to neighbors and other passersby. For the majority of this time she worked at United Technologies Norden Systems. She took pride in her work and its contribution to society. Though she witnessed the divisiveness that a legacy of racial slavery and legal segregation can bring, she kept an open heart with regard to other people. In 1980 she took a chance on two young white boys from the west who were walking around the neighborhood where she lived teaching people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She let them into her home and the gospel into her life and agreed to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. From that time forward she kept her testimony and lived her life as an example of her commitment to her covenants. Throughout her life of hardships and loss, hard work and accomplishments she maintained a warm and happy presence. She would tell anyone who is anxious, not to worry and she would say, ‘there is no point in making yourself sick”, and don’t be afraid to ask for something, “people can only say ‘yes’ or ‘no’”. She would advise her children, not to “accept any wooden nickels” She would remind those who might be feeling discouraged to look to The Lord and would ask them, “where is your faith?” She was the matriarch of her family and will forever be an example to them of resilience, faith, integrity, and finding joy in living. Janie is predeceased by her father, Will Edwards; and her mother Mollie Adell Norville of Farmville, North Carolina; a daughter, Pamela Wright of Farmville North Carolina; three sisters; Dorothy Ruth “Dute” Tyson, Dorothy Ruth “Dot” Tyson, and Lucille McEachin of Farmville North Carolina; a nephew and honorary son Alton Gray Edwards of Bridgeport, CT; two grandsons, Ricky Blakes and Germanicus Titus Edwards of Norwalk, CT. She leaves behind four children, Ricky Edwards of Fairfield, CT; Deborah Edwards of Norwalk, CT; Evelyn Wilkes (wife of Larry Wilkes) of Indian Trail NC; and Taurus Wright of Norwalk, CT.; four siblings: Willie Edwards of York, PA; Samuel Edwards and Terry Edwards of Norwalk, CT; and Patricia Anne Edwards of Kinston, North Carolina; as well as a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.” (Proverbs 31: 5,29-31)

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Ms. Janie E. Wright

December 10, 1939 - March 13, 2021