Longtime Fair Haven resident Magnolia “Midge” Edwards Jetter passed away on April 24 at the Atrium in Red Bank. She was 102.

Born on Oct. 23, 1914 in Smithfield, VA Midge graduated from local schools.  At 18 she came to live with an older sister in Sea Bright. It was there where she met her husband, Jesse S. Jetter, an electronics engineer who later retired from Fort Monmouth.

The couple lived in Woodbury and Long Branch before building a home in Fair Haven where she lived for more than 62 years.  In 2011, at the age of 97, she moved to the Atrium in Red Bank.

A few of Midge’s many lifetime joys included spending time with family and friends, serving on numerous boards and committees at Fisk AME Chapel in Fair Haven, gardening, sewing (especially her designer African-American, child-sized dolls), knitting and crocheting, feeding the numerous birds that frequented her yard, and being a kind caretaker to family, friends and perfect strangers.

She loved people and all were welcomed to her home and were often greeted with a slice of warm pound cake and a cup of coffee or tea.

She was especially proud of attending the March on Washington in 1963 and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech in person. Midge lived through 18 U.S. presidents, and campaigned and voted for President Barack Obama. She received a birthday card from him when she turned 97.

Midge is now reunited with her husband and her parents, John Columbus Edwards and Parthenia Allen Edwards.  She was ninth of 13 children (five brothers and seven sisters), 11 of whom preceded her in death.

She is survived and will be missed by: her two children, Dr. Carolyn Jetter Greene of California and Milton W. Jetter of Maryland; her grandson, Dr. Zane D. Amenhotep, of California; a younger sister, Eunice Edwards Savage, of Virginia; and a host of nieces, nephews and friends.

Friends and family are invited to a visitation on Saturday, May 6, from 10 to 11 a.m. at Fisk Chapel A.M.E. Church, 38 Fisk Street, Fair Haven.

Services will follow at 11 a.m.  Interment is private.  The Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad St, Red Bank, is entrusted with the arrangements.

— Obituary provided by Thompson Memorial Home via the Jetter family