Faye Edwards

Tour curated by: Museum of History and Holocaust Education; Curated by Riley Gillibrand | 11 Locations

Faye (Johnson) Edwards was born February 5th, 1923, in Winfield, West Virginia. In this small coal mining town, her father was killed in a coal mining accident and her mother later remarried. As Edwards got older, she moved to Milton, West Virginia, to work as a pie baker.

After being recommended by Mrs. Cline, one of her coworkers in Milton, Edwards moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to live with the Cline family, and joined the American Hammered Piston Rings factory to make piston rings for motors during World War II. She worked primarily with women in the factory, as most men had been drafted. Dissatisfied with the difficult and dirty work of the factory, Edwards and her friend, Laverna Cline, enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in July 1944. Shortly afterward, Edwards was called for duty and reported to Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia for basic training.

At Fort Oglethorpe, Edwards was part of the 22nd Training Regiment. Edwards learned basic army training and later trained incoming soldiers. During her time at Fort Oglethorpe, Edwards recalled meeting and helping prisoners of war that were held on site. After training, Edwards left for Fort Monroe, Virginia. At Fort Monroe, Edwards was responsible for maintaining secret documents and organizing classified information. However, Faye Edwards soon grew tired of the constant secrecy, and was sent abroad to serve in Europe.

At her station in Bremerhaven, Germany, Edwards helped process new soldiers from the United States. Later, Edwards was transferred to Yokohama, Japan, where she met her husband along the way. On November 10th, 1949, Faye Edwards got married privately to Army Sergeant Charlie Edwards. After being discharged from the WACs in January 1950, she moved to Tokyo with her husband where they had their first child, Leinda Jean.

Upon returning to the United States, Faye Edwards' family lived on a military base in Oklahoma and later in Germany while her husband finished his service. The Edwards’ retired to Columbus, Georgia, and Faye Edwards passed away on April 22nd, 2018 in Newnan, Georgia.

Watch Faye Edwards' Legacy Series video here.


Read Faye Edwards' obituary here.

Locations for Tour

“I don’t remember my daddy, he was killed in the coal mines. And my mother, she remarried when I was ten or eleven.”“She worked for a while in a dress factory, but she was everybody’s maid whenever they wanted to do something in the family. They’d trust the family with her and they’d go on… Learn more

“When I got older, I found a job in restaurants ‘cause I was cooking at home and they knew, so I got a job as a pie baker in a city restaurant.”“I met Miss Cline and her husband, who worked in some kind of a factory in Baltimore.”“They gave me room and board so it was very little. I was glad to get… Learn more

“We made piston rings…some of them went to companies that made ship motors and some of them was just like a finger ring.”“You just had a certain time to come in. And you had a certain time for lunch, and to leave, and you didn’t have no spare time. And —when you entered that door, you can expect to… Learn more

“Sometimes it was just — in the middle of the day they shut everything down. And then at night a lot of the times it would be no lights at all. And that was the bad part, at night when there was no lights, ‘cause everything was dark.”“When I went to work, you got a ration book of your own. But when… Learn more

“Well — I heard a lot of talk about it and I saw a lot of it in the movies, and I was too dissatisfied with my job in the defense plants — it was a dirty job and we had several bosses that I didn’t care for at all — to me they didn’t know any more than I did.”“This was the oldest daughter of the… Learn more

“Well, you live in the barracks. A lot of people. And basic training means you learn all army. You have the drilling — everything. You dress for army dress and what you would be doing in the army. And it’s just a lot of stuff you’re not used to. But I got settled and liked it, and went on several… Learn more

“There was some [secret work]. And too when I had the secret work of somebody who would walk in where I was at my desk. I had to roll this under — down in the typewriter. Or if I had it out, I had to turn it over where nobody could see it. I didn’t like to work with that because if somebody did see… Learn more

“I felt very bad. I was upset because when you leave the States and you don’t know when you are coming back or not. It gives you a funny feeling.”“Well you see, they are all in civilian clothes. And I’m the only one in uniform, and you assign them uniforms and they have to fill out papers about… Learn more

“I wanted to go to any place that they’d send me that I hadn’t been.”“We had parades there, and this is us in the summer uniform. That’s just the army. The army is going to parade you regardless of where you’re at.”Walt, Faye Edwards' son: “She actually met him when she was traveling to Japan. She… Learn more

“We was in Oklahoma, we lived on a base. They had just two or three houses in Oklahoma, but usually the army base has quite a few houses. But in Oklahoma they didn’t have many."Linda Jean, Faye Edwards' daughter: “It was a game reserve in Oklahoma with deer and chickens and everything.”Editor's… Learn more

“Well, it brings back good memories. It brings back some bad ones. But — whatever I know is over — and I don’t have to live them again.”“I guess I should [feel proud]. I went into a country that was against us and I made it. And I hope that I changed some of them because I got along good with them.… Learn more