Ada Frances Edwards (Deedie) Melchers

Ada Frances Edwards (Deedie) Melchers, 88, entered heaven on Monday, October 8, 2012. She was born in Hawthorne, Florida on September 20, 1924, daughter of the late O. M. and Bertie Rae Hieronymus Edwards. Her family settled at Good Acres Farm on McCants Drive when she was 11 years old. She attended Memminger Elementary School in Charleston and graduated in the first graduating class of General William Moultrie High School before attending the College of Charleston. She married her childhood sweetheart, Julien Theodore (Ted) Melchers, Jr. of Mount Pleasant in 1943 and they lived out their love for Christ and each other for 69 years.

She is survived by her husband, Ted Jr.; daughter, Fay Melchers Goodnight and her husband, Dee, of Roswell, GA; daughter, Julie Melchers Wilson and her husband, Alan, of Mount Pleasant, SC; son, Dr. Julien Theodore Melchers, III and his wife, Cindy Copeland, of Mount Pleasant, SC; and son, Joseph M. Melchers and his wife, Kathy Hankins, of Lexington, SC; seventeen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren; brothers; Dr. Thomas Edwards of Greenville, SC, and Governor James B. Edwards of Mount Pleasant, SC, and countless nieces, nephews and many others who claimed her as their own!

Perhaps her greatest legacy is best stated by one of her great-nieces, Miriam Wingate Ashworth, who wrote: "So grateful to the Lord for my dear Aunt Deedie; for the life she lived so abundantly in her Savior; for the joy of the Lord she reflected so vividly upon everyone around her; for that captivating way she could tell a story or recite poetry or Scripture so that even the smallest child in the room was held spellbound; for the abandon with which she loved, nurtured and served her family; for the unapologetic way she admired those she loved; for the way she could always make time for you as if you were the one thing that mattered most to her in that moment; for the sweetness of all those precious memories; and for the richness of the godly heritage she has left to us and to generations to come. What a blessing that she is now with her Redeemer, the Lover of her soul!"

The relatives and friends of Deedie Melchers are invited to attend her Funeral Service on Friday, October 12, 2012 in East Cooper Baptist Church at 10:00 am. Burial will follow in Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery. Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC., MOUNT PLEASANT CHAPEL. The family will receive friends in the Mount Pleasant Chapel on Thursday, October 11, 2012 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Flowers are welcome or memorial contributions can be made to East Cooper Baptist Church, 361 Egypt Road, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464, or Veritas Classical Schools, Scholarship Fund, 1000 Johnnie Dodds Blvd. Ste. 103 - 406, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464.