Montgomery’s Edge passes 100th year, remembered for life of service

Reaching the age of 100 marked significant changes for Lucille Hasty Edge, whose late husband, Robert, was the founding pastor of Capitol Heights Baptist Church in Montgomery. 
   
Failing physical health forced her to move from an assisted living facility to a nursing home in December. And just over a year ago she finally had to give up teaching Sunday School.
   
But life at large — or at least her outlook on it — hasn’t done much changing. The centenarian still nurtures lively dreams for the future. She hopes, she said, to “see many people brought to the Lord” before she dies. 
   
Born Nov. 7, 1904, Lucille Hasty married Robert C. Edge Sr. in September  1927. The couple had grown up together in Doerun, Ga., where they were high school sweethearts. Immediately following their wedding, they set off for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where she graduated from the WMU Training School.
   
They moved to Montgomery in October 1934 so Robert Edge could assume pastorate of the newly organized Capitol Heights Baptist Church. He served as pastor there for the next 35 years.
   
But even after he retired, she continued to serve the church. After her husband died in 1986, she continued to serve.
   
Her ministry took several forms over the years. Having accepted Christ at age 12, Lucille Edge worked in every phase of church, including Cradle Roll superintendent, superintendent of the beginner department and superintendent of the junior department from 1938 until the 1950s.
   
She started teaching adults in the 1950s. Until December 2003, she taught a Sunday School class of senior adult women each week. She was 99. “She didn’t require any special accommodations at all,” said Warren Culver, who has been pastor of Capitol Heights for 12 years.
   
Lucille Edge also served as a Woman’s Missionary Union director and president and sang in the choir. She served as an Alabama Baptist State Sunday School approved worker in the area of Junior work and led conferences around Alabama as well as other states. She served in a similar capacity in the Montgomery Baptist Association.
   
Marialyce Burnette became a Junior Sunday School teacher under Lucille Edge’s leadership at Capitol Heights. “I learned a lot under her. She was always well prepared, loved the boys and girls and encouraged us to love the parents, too.
   
“It’s been a great inspiration to me to see someone so faithful to their Christian beliefs.”
   
Lucille Edge is the mother of a daughter, Martha Durham, and son Robert Edge Jr. He also served various pastorates around the state until his retirement. She has six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. She celebrated her 100th birthday in November 2004 with her family and her pastor and his wife. Capitol Heights Church gave her a party when she turned 98.
   
Through the years, Culver said the church has often pointed to Lucille Edge’s example of service for inspiration. Her daughter, Martha, teaches a class each Wednesday to prepare Sunday School teachers for the next lesson. 
   
One Wednesday night Culver spied Lucille, then about age 89, going into the class and said jokingly, “Mrs. Edge, haven’t you learned it all by now?” Her response, according to Culver, was “Oh, no, I learn something new every day.”
   
“It kind of put me in my place,” Culver said. “She’s kept a learner’s attitude and sought to learn and sharpen herself.” 
   
Even though age is shrinking the perimeters of her life, there’s nothing insular about the desires that maintain it. Lucille still cites John 14:6 as her inspiration: “I am the way, and the truth and the life” (NIV). She calls “seeing people come to the Lord, do things for Him and be faithful workers for the Lord” as ministry’s greatest rewards. 
   
And her counsel to younger people remains timeless. “Give your life to the Lord and stay close to Him always.”
   
Editor’s Note — Lucille Hasty Edge passed away the evening of Feb. 9, just two days before press time. The Alabama Baptist chose to leave her story in this issue as it was originally written.