Jessie Alma Edge  March 7, 1900 – February 11, 1998

     “Granny Edge,” as she was known, was born in Opp, AL to Mr. and Mrs. Jake Benton.  Newly married, she moved to Niceville, FL. in 1921 when it was still called Boggy Bayou. Times were hard in the small community of 11 families where residents struggled to make a living.  Jessie had been raised in a prosperous Alabama family. She had taken elocution lessons, piano lessons – she’d been raised to be a Southern belle.  Her sportsman father owned several hunting and fishing lodges near Boggy where the family often vacationed. 

     On one of those family vacations she met Joe Edge the son of the area’s postmaster. Jessie’s father had picked out another man for her to marry and was opposed to this marriage.  Determined and persistent, Jessie stood her ground.  She and Joe eloped with the help of a friend who owned the only car in town.

     But Jessie’s first months in the area were difficult ones because she was treated as an outsider.  Suspicious of her, the local women were reluctant to get to know her.  Again, Jessie’s stubbornness served her well. Gradually she won her way into the community circle.  She was most interested in politics and began attending the town’s public meetings.  She often brought refreshments to the city council meetings.  However, she was aware women played no roll in leadership positions, and besides, she had a home to keep and was busily raising nine children. She washed clothes in water drawn from an old rusty pump in the backyard.  Supplies were brought into the community by boat, sometimes wagons.  If the weather was bad and supplies couldn’t get through, the little mercantile store would run out.  So, if people couldn’t borrow from a neighbor they simply had to do without. The soil here was too poor for raising any significant food crops. But, all along, her interest in community government remained.

     Husband Joe, managed the Meigs’ fish house. And when an ice house was built he managed it, too.  Later, he was the first to have a garage in town.  Jessie’s father sent her five brand new Fords with a mileage meter on the steering wheel.  When the fishing boats came in the crewmen would cash their paychecks and come up to the garage to rent a car.  In those years a trip to Crestview was a treat – they always got stuck in the sandy road during the trip and had to be dug out. But it was worth it because Crestview had a drug store and different others little stores . . . even a place to get ice cream!  A trip to Pensacola was a really big deal because it took all day to get there.

     After her husband died in 1979 she was able to focus on community activism.  Encouraged by friends she worked to become a delegate to the Florida Silver-Haired Legislature. Though this position was more ceremonial in nature, she gained experience representing her district in the State Capitol of Tallahassee.  Owner and operator of Phil’s Taxi in the late 1960s and 70s, Jessie was most capable of providing for herself and her family.

     She lobbied to have a new hospital built in the community and soon had a reputation of as a political force of nature.  As her influence grew she attended the White House Conference on Aging.  State Representative James Ward remembered Jessie when a political pal told him, “You’ve got to get Jessie off of me!”  Jim understood what the politician meant.  Jim said, “When Jessie phones you it’s like having your grandmother twist your arm.”  Thanks to “Granny” as she had become known, the Twin Cities Pavilion Congregate Living Facility was dedicated in 1983. Jessie had been instrumental in getting a $75,000 grant; the land leased, and volunteer groups to contribute time and money for the facility.  The pavilion’s dining room was named in her honor.

     When the votes were counted on July 19, 1983, Jessie Alma Edge (known affectionately as “granny”) had defeated her two male opponents in the Niceville town of 11,000.  She had become the first woman to be elected to the Niceville City Council and, at 83, the oldest person in the United States ever to win a first bid for elective office. She served in that post for 2 ½ terms until 1993 when she retired from office at age 92.

    In an article of the Congressional Record, July 1983, she is described as “bubbling with vitality”  “A lifelong member of the Pentecostal Church of Niceville, she has converted the admonitions of the pulpit into the fact of Christian living.”  The article concludes with this observation:  “Granny is trying to tell us something, and we would be wise to listen. Competence comes in many packages, some small, others large; some brand-new, and some seasoned in the school of Achievement.  Granny Edge comes from the latter. She does not feel like she has won anything. She sees the next 4 years as a broader opportunity to service Niceville and its people. Whether she admits it or not, Granny is a winner, and so are we all.”

     Jesse Alma “Granny” Edge died on February 11, 1998.  Some 175 people attended her funeral and flower arrangements filled the altar. A speaker spoke of Granny Edge saying, “I remember one time I went down to her home and she was talking to (Gov.) Lawton Chiles. ‘Lawton, honey, she said.  Everybody was ‘honey’ or ‘my child.’ She laid claim on everybody.”  She was laid to rest in the Rocky Memorial Cemetery, Niceville, FL.

Baker Block Museum Educational Services. Corner Hwy 189 and SR 4 in Baker, FL. 32531