September 27, 1959 — March 21, 2021
Family, food, faith and asphalt framed life of University Hts. businessman
Reggie Edwards, as he was universally known, was born in Cleveland on September 27, 1959, to Joseph and Mattie Edwards. He was the sixth of their eight children.
The family moved to Montville, Ohio in 1970 and Reggie graduated from Ledgemont HS there in 1977.
In Montville, Reggie was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness, after which attending large district summer conventions in downtown Cleveland or elsewhere became a staple of his life.
Like his religion, Reggie’s passions for eating and working centered around his family. Asphalt paving was the family business, and the six Edwards boys were each introduced to the family business at the age of 12 or 13. Like his brothers, he learned the business from the bottom up. He loved his work and took pride in his skills.
Reggie’s parents eventually moved from Montville to Tuskegee, Alabama. That proved a blessing to Reggie, for on one of his visits there he met and fell head over heels for Carolyn Allen. She was forever after “Carol” to him, and with the gift of gab — a family trait he inherited along with trademark good looks and the love of hot asphalt — he persuaded her to marry him on November 6, 1981. They were nearly inseparable for forty years until his death on March 21, 2021.
Reggie and Carol initially settled in Houston, Texas, where the young family doubled with the births of LaToya and “Brooke”. Soon thereafter, they relocated back to Cleveland where Reggie could pour and pave asphalt with his brothers and be close to his family.
When he wasn’t working, Reggie loved to eat and to talk about food in ways that made everybody’s mouth water. He also loved to fish, especially when he could persuade Carol to bait his hook; he was a little squeamish about that particular task.
In addition to his wife Carolyn Edwards, Reggie is survived by his daughters LaToya DeWess (Jurrell) and Melanie “Brooke” Edwards; his mother Mattie Edwards; his sisters, Belinda Anthony, Donna Johnson (Todd); and brothers Joseph Jr. (Ernice), Alfred (Juanita), Daniel (Marquis), Derrick (Carolyn) and Victor Sr. (Veronica); and a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, other relatives and friends. Reggie was preceded in death by his father, Joseph Sr.
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