Lois Ann Lipps Edwards lost her two and a half year battle with pancreatic cancer on Saturday, January 14. The oldest child of the late Alton and Louise Lipps of Frederick, Lois graduated from St. John's Literary Institute in 1954 and St. Joseph College, Emmitsburg, MD, in 1958. She married Albert Edwards in 1959. Al's career took them to San Francisco, CA, Frederick, Newark, DE, Belle Meade, NJ, Cincinnati, OH, Yardley, PA, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Australia and Dallas, TX. They resettled in Frederick in 1998. Lois was a full-time homemaker and mother. In addition to her husband, Lois is survived by her three children and their spouses, Toni Ann Edwards and Gary Leatherman, Adamstown, David and Carrie Edwards, San Francisco, and Kristin and Michael Slavin, Arnold, MD, her grandchildren, Anne and Lesley Leatherman and Ceara and Grace Slavin, her siblings and their spouses, Ron and Pat Lipps, Frederick, Jay and Dora Lipps, Sunnyvale, CA, Maralita(Micki) and Ray Freeny, College Park, MD, seven nieces and nephews, a great-niece and a host of dear friends, cousins and neighbors. Lois was a devoted volunteer. Among her activities were serving as president of the Montgomery, Ohio Women's Club, a religious educator and lector at various parishes, and Meals on Wheels visitor. Beyond her volunteer work, Lois began an interest in writing while in college. In 1957, she won an Atlantic Monthly Contest and had a dramatic monologue published in the magazine. She won additional writing competitions throughout her life and as class secretary wrote a regular column for the St. Joseph College Alumnae Association. Outside of the seven states and two countries Lois lived in, she also enjoyed extensive travel and visited Normandy, France this past summer. An avid reader, she participated in several book discussion groups throughout her life. Lois loved dance; as a child she was a student at the Evelyn White School of Dance and as an adult she studied at various studios located in places she lived including Tom Waters' Artistic Dance Centre and Dance Unlimited. Lois was a member of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church. In honor of her love for reading, Memorial donations can be made to the Friends of the C. Burr Artz Public Library. Visitation will be held on Friday January 20th at Keeney & Basford Funeral Home, 106 East Church Street Frederick, MD, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Saturday, January 21st at 1:00 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 118 East 2nd Street, Frederick, MD. Interment will follow at St. John's Catholic Cemetery, Frederick, MD.
