Edna Combs passed peacefully on Monday morning, August 3, 2020, from complications related to Alzheimer's.  Her husband of over 71 years, Rev. Milton Combs, Sr. and her oldest son, Milt Jr., were with her as she transitioned.  She was 91. 

Edna Mae Stone was born on July 28, 1929 in St. Paul, MN, three months before the beginning of the Great Depression.  She was the oldest of 10 children.  Her father was Albert Stone (d. July 1940) and her mother was Evelyn La France Jacobson (d. February 2001).  Edna spent her early years in Wisconsin on 20-acres of land that her father, a mechanic and WWI veteran, bought, cleared, and built a farm on.  Edna attended a one-room schoolhouse as a small child, where she and her younger siblings were the only African American children.

After her father's early death, Edna's family returned to St. Paul, where she graduated from Mechanic Arts High School in 1947.  Edna was active in youth programs at Pilgrim Baptist Church, which her great-grandparents helped establish.  Edna also volunteered and worked at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center where she met, and later fell in love with, her future husband, Milt Combs.  They were married June 28, 1949.

Edna began her higher education at Macalester College but withdrew with the arrival of her first born – Milt Jr. in 1950.  In 1952, Edna and Milt embarked on their first great journey.  They loaded up their car with three young children, Milt Jr., Karyn, and Kris, and headed west.  While Milt Sr. pursued his divinity studies at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, California, Edna managed the household and played the primary role in raising their three children, much as she did in her youth to allow her mother to work.  Edna was also Milt's study partner, independently auditing classes at the seminary, and often learning the gospel as well as – if not better than – Milt.  Though Baptists, Edna and Milt joined Downs Memorial Methodist Church in North Oakland, recognizing part of Edna's family roots in the Methodist Church where her grandfather was a minister.  This also signaled the start of Edna's lifelong interdenominational and interfaith practices that would exemplify the rest of her Christian life. 

In 1956, Edna and Milt began their second great journey when they decided to pursue missionary service overseas.  Edna and Milt traveled east to study at Cornel University in Ithaca, NY, while waiting for their missionary assignment.  They received their commission to work in what is today Myanmar (Burma).  Arriving in Burma in 1957, news media reported they were the first African Americans assigned to Burma by the American Baptist Mission Society.  Not quite two years later, her fourth child Roy was reported as the first African American born in Burma.  Edna and Milt became fluent in the Burmese and Karen languages.  Edna called on the farming skills she learned in Wisconsin and her missionary training to assist with agricultural projects.  Additionally, she taught classes on childhood health and hygiene.  Edna and Milt served for five years in Myanmar, learning much about the diversity of the Burmese people, their culture, their faiths and practices, and their hopes and aspirations.  Edna and the family returned to the United States shortly after the March 1962 military coup d'état in Burma. 

Beginning their third great journey, they settled in Richmond, California, where they lived for the next twenty years.  Edna and Milt quickly became involved in the bourgeoning civil rights work in their community, especially with youth in the Eastshore Park neighborhood.  Their home became a hub of community organizing activity in the mid-1960's and early 70's with Edna often serving as organizer and host.  By the late 1960's, Edna had integrated Kwanzaa into the family's Christmas celebration, which has become a hallmark of Combs' holiday gatherings over the years.  All the while, Edna maintained her backyard crops of corn, squash, tomatoes, peas, radishes, beets, carrots, lettuce and occasionally pumpkins and watermelons. 

Edna was a staunch and vocal advocate for quality education in the then systemically racist and segregated Richmond schools.  Edna decided to return to college to become an educator.  She first attended the old Laney College campus (Grove Street College) in Oakland.  Not long after the birth of her fifth child, John, she returned to school and attended UC Berkeley from 1967 to 1971 earning her bachelor's degree.  After completing her credential program at Berkeley a year later, Edna began teaching in the Vallejo Unified School District.  Over her 20 years of teaching there, Edna was recognized as a master teacher, exemplifying excellence in teaching as she mentored many young teachers and educated thousands of students.  Her teaching philosophy was grounded in the unwavering belief in the ability of all children to succeed – in school and life – if loved, respected, encouraged and taught well.  In that spirit, Edna also "adopted" into her family young people coming to America from Africa and Asia to pursue their education. 

From 1982 to 1984, Edna and Milt began their fourth great adventure with retirement and the hands-on building of their new home in Kensington.  Edna was the project's "controller" – writing checks and keeping the books.  She also put on overalls and pounded nails.  Retirement didn't slow Edna down.  She remained active: consulting with her daughter's business (helping adults learn English); grandparenting; gardening; and sharing her love of music, especially jazz, and literature from Zora Neale Hurston to Rumi.  Throughout her life, Edna brought joy to, and nurtured, those she encountered and remained true to her lifelong faith-based journey of spiritual development and awareness.  In her final years, Edna confronted the challenges of Alzheimer's with dignity and grace, and at times with unabashed humor, while never forgetting the name of her husband and often reminding us that "God is here."

Edna is survived by her husband Milt Sr., her five children – Milt Jr., Karyn, Kris and her husband Rudy, Roy and his wife Barbara, and John; grandchildren Kimila and her husband Adam, David Combs, Simone Combs, Mignon Combs, Anthony Combs, Marie Nicole Combs, Sarai Combs, Zivenah Combs and Marvin Combs, Brian Green and Nikki Green, Yolandra Sanders and Robbie Sanders; great grandchildren Mekhi Combs, Bailey Marie Combs and Juno Janell Ledbetter; daughters-in-love Trena Combs, Tina Combs, Stacey Combs and Angie Combs; brothers Edward Stone and his wife Loretta, Clarence Stone and his wife Paulette, and Teddy Stone, sister Diane Ashby; and beloved extended family and nieces and nephews throughout the country and world.  

A "virtual" memorial celebration will occur Sunday afternoon, August 23, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.  Please email EdnaCombsMemorial@gmail.com for more information or to send condolences.  Personal expressions of condolences or sympathy and memories of Edna can be shared with family, friends and the public at https://www.legacy.com/search?firstName=Edna&lastName=Combs or Lasting Memories http://www.lastingmemories.com/edna-mae-combs-1 .  Edna's ashes will be interred at Rolling Hills Memorial Park in Richmond, California in a private service.  In lieu of flowers or gifts, donations may be made in Edna's name to the scholarship fund at Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in St. Paul, MN, the scholarship fund at Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN, or the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. 

Edna will be profoundly missed, but her spirit lives on in those who knew her, and her soul is now free and experiencing eternal joy with God's Angels.