Emma Mae Keys1

b. 19 April 1909, d. 4 July 1991
FatherJames King Keys2 b. 11 Feb 1867 or 1868, d. 7 Oct 1923
MotherSarah F.V. Widner2 b. Sep 1872, d. 1938
Birth19 Apr 1909 Emma Mae Keys was born on 19 Apr 1909 in Oklahoma.1 
Name Other  She was known by Mae, her middle name.1 
Childhood  Mae grew up in Oklahoma where she was listed on her parent's May 1910 census enumeration. She was 1 year old, the youngest of 6 children recorded in the household. Several other children had died young. Mae's father worked as a miner.2 
  Around 1919 Mae's parents moved to Colorado where Mae's father and older brothers went to work at the Midwest Coal Mine. On Oct. 7, 1923 a mine explosion took the lives of Mae's father and her brothers James William, Robert and Harvey.

Mae's mother then took her younger children and moved to Detroit where she ran a boarding house. One of the boarders was a young man by the name of Jess Edge who worked as a machinist in an automobile factory. He had known the family in Oklahoma and according to family tradition had said someday he would marry Mae Keys.3,1 
Marriage3 Dec 1925  True to his word, on 3 Dec 1925 Emma Mae Keys married Jess Dewey Edge in Detroit, Michigan. Mae was 16; Jess was about 26.1 
  The young couple moved several times over the next few years; their first child, Wanda, was born in the spring of 1928 in Miami County, Indiana. 
Cens-19305 Apr 1930  By 1930 they had settled in Cochise County, Arizona, where Jess worked in a copper mine.4 
Children  The family eventually included 7 children. 
Death4 Jul 1991 Mae died on 4 Jul 1991 in Yakima, Washington, at age 82.1 
Burial She was buried in Palmer, Alaska.1 

Family

Jess Dewey Edge
Children
  • Wanda Mae Edge1 (30 Apr 1928 - )
  • James Kenneth Edge1 (20 Jan 1931 - 23 Mar 1982)
  • Kay Frances Edge1 (15 Oct 1933 - 9 Aug 1991)
  • Mary Gale Edge1 (24 Apr 1935 - 24 Dec 1994)
  • Judy Ellen Edge1
  • Kathy Faye Edge1
  • Jess Edge1
ChartsDescendants of John Edmondson and Martha Moore
Last Edited23 Jul 2011

Citations

  1. [S2692] Bernie Lee, "My Grandma is in Rambling Roots," e-mail to D. Powell, 29 June 2011. Bernie is the grandson of Emma Mae (Keys) Edge, and the son of Wanda (Edge) XX who provided Bernie with family data for this report.
  2. [S1882] James K. Keys household, 1910 U.S. cens., LeFlore Co., Oklahoma, pop. sched., Howe City, ED 152, sheet 12B, dwelling 203, family 203, viewed online at Ancestry.com, Dec. 2007, image 2 of 4. Household includes: Jame K. Keys, 43, marr #1, marr 19 yrs, parents b. VA, coal miner; Sarah F., wife, 39, marr #1, marr 19yrs, mother of 12 children, 7 are living, b. VA, parents b. VA; Blaine W., son, 17, b. VA; Robert W., son, 15, b. VA; Martha E., dau, 13, b. VA; Clinton _, son, 8, b. OK; Harvey C., son, 3, b. OK; Emma M., dau, 1, b. OK.
  3. [S1883] Plateau Voice - Colbran, Mesa County, 12 Oct. 1923, "Terrific Gas Explosion in the Midwest Mine", digital image, Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection (http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org : accessed Dec. 2007).
  4. [S2693] Jesse Edge household, 1930 U.S. cens., Cochise Co., Arkansas, pop. sched., Bisbee, ED 2-9, sheet 3-A (p. 86 stamped), dwelling 68, family 69, viewed online at Ancestry.com, Jun 2011. Household includes: Jesse Edge, 30, b. AL, rents home [amt per month not clear; poss $14], first married at 26, miner in copper mine; Mae, 20, wife, b. OK, first married at 16; Wanda, dau, 2, b. IN.