Graveyard Watch

The Amazing Edna May Chambers

My narrative is about my great, great grandmother Edna Mae Golla Chambers. Much of the information written here was told to me by my great grandmother, Joyce Louise McMillan who is now 88 years of age.

Edna Mae was born in Etna, Pennsylvania and grew up around the major steel mills. At the time she remembered driving by car and watching the bright red fires and miners working within the glass wall.

Edna May Chambers

She was born an only child to Steven and Lillian Golla. Her mother was a homemaker and her father, Steve entered the military of West Point in upper New York. Sadly, he had to leave West Point due to a congenital heart condition. She never left his side until his early death at 65 years old.

During this time, Edna met a very handsome man named Rex Chambers, who later became her husband. She became pregnant at the age of sixteen and was forced to leave high school to care for Edward, her son.

Edna, Rex and her mother Lillian moved to Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Edna’s love of passenger trains allowed her to visit downtown Pittsburgh, weekly to shop.
She liked to visit her tea house to have her fortune told by tea leaves. She could be seen wearing a small live chameleon on her suit. Wearing a chameleon was a fashion statement in those days. Every Mother’s Day, Edna wore a white or red carnation. In those days you wore a red carnation if your mother was alive and a white carnation if your mother was deceased.

Even though Edna had a short amount of education, she never stopped learning. She played the ukelele and would always sing along with the music. Her favorite song was Frankie and Johnny. She also loved to play bridge and was a great card player. She loved to play pranks and tell jokes to her bridge friends and family.

Edna’s husband Rex was an avid hunter. She became extremely interested and fascinated with guns and learned as much as she could about them. Edna joined the NRA (National Rifle Association) in her twenties and she became a valuable sharpshooter. She was proud to bring home some great bull’s eyes on her targets. Edna could also sew, quilt and knit.

When Edna’s daughter, Joyce Louise was around five years old, Edna entered her into dance classes. Joyce was extremely talented, so Edna became a proud stage mother. They traveled throughout the region of Pittsburg and was proud to watch and support her talented daughter. Joyce danced for the USO during WW11.

Joyce was awarded a scholarship to New York City to a dance academy, however, Edna would not agree to Joyce going to New York City. Edna chose a teaching career for her daughter, Joyce.

There were many guns locked up in the attic along with many trophies that Edna won. Later, these guns would create terrible tragedies for Edna and her husband, Rex, along with the rest of the family.

Rifle Trophy

Young Edward (Eddie) came home one Sunday morning very disturbed. Edna asked him why he was so very upset, but he would not respond to her questions. He proceeded to walk upstairs to the attic where seconds later, Eddie put a bullet to his heart. He was dead on arrival to the hospital. Edna later found a note that read, “Forgive me” “Love, Eddie”.

Life was never the same for Edna. With her insurance money from Eddie’s death, Edna purchased a record player and played music all day long to drown out her sorrow of Eddie.

Soon later, Edna became pregnant and decided to have an abortion that was not legal in those days.

Edna’s life continued to spiral and be a continuous disaster. She was told by her husband,
Rex that he had a mistress. Rex (my great grandfather) was a big deal in Gulf Oil Corporation and lived through the week in Texas and would fly home to Pittsburg on the weekend. He also informed her that he had two children with his mistress and a third baby was on the way. The mistress did not want this third baby, so my grandfather asked Edna to raise the mistress’ baby. She pretended to carry a baby for several months so that nobody would be suspicious of where the baby came from. Edna received Steven at two weeks of age and raised him as her own until he was twelve and a tragedy would then strike.

Steven

Let’s talk about her dedication to WW11. Edna spent endless hours knitting sweaters for the military. Because of her skills in sharp shooting, Edna was asked to teach rifle shooting to the US Marines at Camp Quantico and Camp Lejeune. Many newspaper pictures are hidden away about this topic; however, we do not know where. Edna became an accomplished writer and was known for her articles as the rifle and pistol editor in the Pittsburg Sun-Telegraph (Hearst Newspaper). She began traveling to various rifle competitions and won the state championship for the State of Pennsylvania.

Edna tragically shot herself in the heart and left a note for her son, Steven telling him she was sleeping. She also left a handwritten note that only her husband would read and destroy.

Edna’s funeral was filled with much emotion. The funeral was full of sadness, but at the same time, family members felt a bit of comfort knowing she was finally at peace. She was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver due to her excessive habit of drinking alcohol.

Edna was buried in Beaver Cemetery alongside her beloved Eddie and her husband, Rex.

The headstones are small, but large enough. There also is a large stone with the name Eachael (Edna’s family) on one side and Chambers on the other side.

On my great grandmother’s wall (Joyce Louise) she has a picture of Edna along with her glasses.

Joyce claims that Edna visits her from time to time. Ironically, Edna had just visited Joyce two days before I asked my grandmother to talk to me about Edna. Grandma Joyce felt that Edna had visited her in the nursing home to give her blessing on helping me with the facts for this paper. My grandmother Joyce felt the message from great-great
grandmother, “Keep looking at my picture on your wall!”

This period was also around the time the stock market fell and many lost millions of dollars. This period was called the “Great Depression.”

Edna’s tombstone reads:

Edna Golla Chambers

Born 1910

Died 1951

The grave sits high on a hill surrounded by trees and grass. The epitaph to this is also a picture as a child of ten years old wearing her glasses. Edna’s glasses are now displayed at my great grandmother Joyce’s room in a nursing home.

Edna has visited many of us on occasion according to my great grandmother, Joyce.