Edith Mabel Buckwalter Holsopple

Edith Mabel Buckwalter Holsopple was born in Newport News, Virginia, on November 13, 1953. She died peacefully at home in Hopewell, Virginia, on October 2, 2024. Her parents were Erlis "Bud" Buckwalter and Esther Shenk Buckwalter, who preceded Edie in death. She is survived by her older brother, Paul Benjamin Buckwalter, of Goshen, Indiana; and younger sister, Laine Louise Dieghan, of Blacksburg, Virginia; Edie's husband, Curtis R. Holsopple; their son, James J. Holsopple and his partner, Beth Ruffa; with her children, Steven and Caelyn; and Jay's children, Rebecca and Eli; their mother, Michelle; Michelle's son, Dillon Tillas; and many cousins.

Edie grew up in the Denbigh neighborhood of Newport News, Virginia. After marrying Curt in May 1974, they lived in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Connecticut, and back to Virginia.

She was an eager reader at a young age. She read the whole Bible in the King James version in third grade. At age five she asked, "When are the children of Israel going to grow up?" She was baptized when she was 11 years old, at Warwick River Mennonite Church, and lived her entire childhood along Lucas Creek Road in Denbigh.

Edie attended both Denbigh and Eastern Mennonite High Schools, and she graduated from Eastern Mennonite College, in 1991, with a major in Biblical Studies with minors in Education and Teaching English as a second Language.

Edie taught English to adults from Iran, Japan, Laos, Thailand, and Uruguay. She also taught drivers education to a college student and an MCC student trainee in Goshen, Indiana. She started her own cleaning business while still a teenager, worked as a shipping manager and truck driver for a factory, a nurse's aide, a writer and editor for a technical magazine, revised a series of juvenile mystery novels, managed Warwick River Christian Childcare for 13 years, and drove the special needs school bus in Hopewell for 18 years. She had a special love for her school children.

Her outside interests included reading, cabinet making and carpentry, old house restoration, ham radio (earning the top proficiency license in electronics and Morse code), bicycling, art, long distance running, and community theater. Edie was an active member of First Mennonite Church, in Richmond.