By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Edna Brown Stodghill is an adventurer who loves to stay busy, even at age 85.

“I guess that’s what has kept me going all this time,” said Stodghill with a smile. She turns 86 on July 16.

One of her most fascinating adventures was enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1944.

Stodghill was working at Rheem Mfg. Co., which made shell casings at the time. A friend from work, Vivian Halbrooks, joined the Coast Guard with her. Stodghill was 23.

She said her parents “didn’t like it too much, but they sent me off with good wishes,” Stodghill said. “I figured if I went in the service, I’d keep some kid’s daddy from having to go.”

She said her time in the service was “wonderful.”

“I’d do it again if they’d let me sit at a desk and answer the phone,” she said.

In the Coast Guard, Stodghill was a yeoman. Her job was to do office work.

She got her training at Palm Beach, Fla. She was then sent to Boston, Mass., and then transferred to Biloxi, Miss.

It was in Biloxi that she met her husband, Roy H. Stodghill. She was 25 years old, and he was 26.

The handsome young man from Texas was also in the Coast Guard, serving as a medic.

Stodghill said they met in December and were married the following March.

“But it worked,” she said. The two were married just short of 40 years when he died 21 years ago.

After their marriage, they moved to Birmingham after spending a few months with his family in Texas. He went to work for American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO).

Stodghill’s accomplishments include studying elementary education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and working as a supply teacher (substitute teacher) for about eight years.

She then decided to change careers and got into food management.

She actually got an associate’s degree in food management and dietetic technician at Jefferson State Community College when she had five grandchildren.

“You never get too old to learn,” she said.

Stodghill has also done her share of traveling. She has been to Europe, Israel and Egypt, both to satisfy her curiosity and to see some places famous in the Bible.

One thing Stodghill is known for is being a member of her church for more than 83 years.

When she was 3 years old, her family moved to north Birmingham and joined Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church.

Years later, Mt. Vernon joined a local church to form Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church.

Stodghill has been a continuous member of the church for 83 years. She said another church member, Shirley Robinson, has also been a member for 83 years.

In those years, Stodghill has taught classes, sung in the choir, worked in the kitchen, taught youth and more.

“I think I’ve done everything but play the organ,” she said with a laugh.

Stodghill is soon moving from Gardendale to Springville to a garden home her son built for her.

Her children are: Roy III (Sandy) Stodghill of Springville; Annette Carter, also moving with her to Springville; Ginny (Buddy) Choat of Trussville; and Kathy (Randy) Williams of Cullman.

She has 11 grandchildren with another on the way, and eighth great-grandchildren.

Stodghill was one of seven children. She and her twin sister, Eunice Wall, a cancer survivor who lives in Americus, Ga., are the only two living siblings of the seven.

Stodghill is a member of the Blue Star Garden Club, past president of the Gardendale Literary Club (disbanded), and was on the original committee for the Gardendale Senior Center.