‘Tenacity’ Is What I Think Of When Thinking Of All The Challenges Families Endured

– Ray Chapman

Not too long after I’d moved back to Daniels County in 2018, I had the good fortune of a chance encounter with Lucille Edwards here at the Pioneer Inn. I was watching football on the TV in the community room when Lucille walked in and we started to talk. She being from Flaxville and I from Peerless, naturally we soon began discussing high school basketball back in the 1970s and the heated rivalry between our respective towns and schools.

At some point in the conversation, Lucille asked if I had known her two children, Peggy and Russell. I mentioned I knew Peggy a bit and that, of course, had often played basketball against Russell. As she spoke of them, Lucille’s grief at losing her children at so young an age was palpable, though muted a bit by time. It seemed the wounds were covered but would never completely heal. However, there was still a geniality and feistiness about her, and I knew that the tragedies in her life had not defeated her when our conversation was finish...