Sylvia Edmonson

Beloved wife, mother, and sister, Sylvia Louise (Underwood) Edmonson, 73, was called Home by her Heavenly Father on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 while under hospice care at a local nursing home.
Mrs. Edmonson was born January 21, 1947 in Fort Worth to Francis Harvey Underwood and Nellie Ada (Reed) Underwood. After graduating from Polytechnic High School in 1965, she began to attend Tennessee Temple Bible School aspiring to become a missionary. Soon she realized she liked her Bible classes but did not want to live overseas and as a result she transferred to Tennessee Temple College where she graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education.
After moving back to Fort Worth, Sylvia met Lionel James Edmonson, Jr. when she was interviewed by his mother for a teaching position at a private school. She became acquainted with Lionel Edmonson at church. They fell in love and married in Fort Worth on August 22, 1974 and then made their home in Beeville. In the coming years, Sylvia had two children, a son in 1977, Jim (Lionel James, III), and a daughter, Stephanie Leigh, in 1981. With new additions to her family, she then decided to further her education at Texas A&M University in Kingsville and received a master degree in reading diagnostics. Sylvia was a devout member of First Baptist Church and was a substitute teacher in the public schools for many years before spending the latter part of her teaching career at First Baptist Church School.
Sylvia enjoyed puzzles, reading, gardening, scrapbooking and taking evening walks with her family. She was proficient in sign language for a portion of her life and enjoyed working with the deaf and those with special needs. She spent time teaching English privately to those whose primary spoken language was one other than the English language and she enjoyed literacy work. She was heavily involved in Baptist church life and enjoyed volunteering at the prison’s visitor center and also going into the prison to minister to inmates with other volunteers. She was heavily involved in her children’s lives! She attended numerous track meets, piano recitals, football games, band concerts, and supported FBC church youth programs and the ministries that arose out of that, namely Interdenominational Fellowship and Campus Connection.
She was preceded in death by her parents, several aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers-in-law and other relatives.
Left behind to cherish sweet memories are her husband of 45 years, Lionel James Edmonson Jr. of Beeville; a son, Lionel James (Amanda) Edmonson III of Hooksett, New Hampshire; a daughter, Stephanie Leigh Edmonson of Beeville; a sister, Sarah Jane Conaway of Allende, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; nephews, Ronald (Letty), Eric, and Timothy; the families of niece Marja (William) Rippetoe and nephew Dwight (Casey) Edmonson; and several cousins, Robert Edmonson and Alice Manuel.
A memorial service will be conducted at 2:00 p.m. on June 19, 2020 at First Baptist Church in Beeville with Rev. Greg Traylor officiating.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to First Baptist Church School or South Texas Children’s Home.