Edith Drake (Drake) Grumbine

Edith Susannah (Drake) Grumbine of Unionville passed from this life on Friday December 2, 2016 at the Dove House in Westminster, MD. She was the wife of the late Dr. James R. Grumbine. Married in 1942, they shared 66 years together before his death in 2008. Born on November 9, 1919 in Covington County Alabama, she was the daughter of Mary Elizabeth (Thomasson) and Colburn Drake. As a member of a large family, Edith spent her childhood helping to work the family farm, planting cotton by mule and hoeing and picking the cotton by hand. Her earliest memories of traveling into town with her parents were by horse and buggy. She always missed her warm Alabama home and shared many fond memories of her family, especially her maternal grandfather, Jefferson Sylvanus Thomasson who was a member of Company E of the Sixth Alabama during the Civil War. He fought at many of the major battles, including Gettysburg, and was one of the few to survive the bloody lane at Antietam. His death in 1939 occurred the same year she graduated from Brantley High School in Brantley, Alabama. As a young woman, one of the few occupations her father would permit was hairdresser so she served her apprenticeship with her older sister Delano Drake Gillian in Greenville, Alabama. She was offered a job opportunity in Auburn, Alabama and that is where she met her future husband. He was a veterinary student at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University.) By the time he graduated in 1945, they were married and had two young sons to bring to his family home in Maryland. Eventually there would be three sons and one daughter. Edith was a member of Linganore United Methodist Church and of the Unionville Homemaker’s Club. For many years she worked at Quynn’s Tannenbaum Shop in Frederick, MD. After retirement, she spent her time frequently visiting relatives in the south and being cared for by her children at home. She is survived by her sons James D. and Stephen C. Grumbine of Unionville, her daughter Susanne Norton and husband Michael of Lilburn, GA and her granddaughters Jane Smith, Silence Belcher and Carlye Norton. She was predeceased by her son Charles Ridgley Grumbine in 2010. Surviving siblings are Collyer Grider of Cantonment, FL and Jo Meeks of Montgomery, AL. Services will be held graveside at Veasey Chapel Cemetery in Covington Co. Alabama. Condolences may be offered at www.jnzumbrunfuneralhome.com. Plans for a memorial service will be announced at a future date.

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