Edna Earle Bond, a retired Memphis City Schools teacher, passed away at the age of 84.
For 21 years, she was employed at Central High School as an instructor of Business and Office Technology. She was also Student Council Sponsor, Flag Corps Sponsor, and Secretary of Central High School Leadership Council.
She never married and had no children. She grew up on a farm in Denmark, Tennessee, with eleven siblings and her mother and father. She is survived by one brother, Howard Ernest Bond of Jackson Tennessee and one sister, Arizona Bond of Denmark, Tennessee.
Edna Earle loved Downtown Memphis and was a proud resident of Indigo Riverview (originally called Lowenstein Tower) for 54 years. She was a graduate of Tennessee State University and The University of Memphis.
She worked for the Dean of Faculty at Tennessee State University, Office of the Chief of the Division of Power Production in Chattanooga, Memphis TVA Allen Steam Plant, and Federal Judge Odell Horton at City Hall during the horrific Sanitation Strike in 1968. Her teaching career included thirty-nine years with Memphis City Schools, including the city’s first alternative school called Occupational Emphasis Program.
She was also adjunct faculty for Southwest Tennessee Community College for forty-three years, St. Agnes Academy, and The University of Memphis.
You may have met Edna Earle at a variety of leadership and community service activities that included: Evaluation Team Member for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (Jackson-Central Merry High School; other schools in Huntsville, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Ashland, Kentucky).
You may remember her as a Faculty Representative and Chairperson for the Human Relations Committee for Memphis Education Association, a board member for Final Net (an organization for homeless children); a teacher for Memphis Literacy Council (Each One Teach One), a Decisions Training Counselor for Shelby County Correction Center, a Religious Education Consultant for St. Mary Catholic Church, and as RCIA Coordinator and Director of Religious Education for St. Peter Catholic Church.
As my sister Shirley says, “If you ever met Edna Earle as a teacher or your friend, you know that she would have 100 questions. She is known for asking lots of questions, and she has a story to tell for every question you ask her. There are no “Yes” or “No” answers with Edna Earle, and she wants an explanation for everything. No open-ended answers either. A conversation with Edna Earle will always include: Why? How? What If? If then? Even her text messages are long and detailed.”
When you look at the earth, you should know that when you die you will leave everything there. Look around you. Each one has his suffering. Let this lesson inspire you to live in union with God and at peace with all men.
If you have received a gift of love from Edna Earle Bond, she wants you to remember the most important lesson she learned during the Pandemic of 2020 is to “Pass It On” and remember these two of her favorite quotes:
1. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
2. “I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers. I looked in front to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond. And their eyes were my eyes.”- Richard Llewellyn
