Edna Josephine Downs Bell was born November 28, 1880 in Bryan County, Georgia. The daughter of Civil War veteran Emmitt Thomas Downs and Edna Josephine Pate Downs, Edna Josephine "Eddie" Downs Bell had eleven siblings. Edna (at age 15) married David Clayton Bell, Sr. on July 16, 1896 in Clyde, Bryan County, and they had eleven children: Marvin Barnard Bell, Birdie Mae Bell Roberts, Ruby Robena Bell McClelland, James Roy Bell, Robert Travis Bell, Lester Wiley Bell, Willie Oscar Bell, Lois Netherae Bell Peyton, Mary Caroline Irene Bell Smith, Edna Josephine "Jo" Bell Deal, and David Clayton Bell, Jr.

Widowed at age 45, Eddie supported her family as a share cropper and midwife. Despite living in the "Jim Crow" South, she performed as a midwife for both black and white women. During World War II she rented rooms to the wives of military men stationed at nearby Fort Stewart. Eddie loved to talk nonstop, a trait inherited by her granddaughter Kathleen Bell Neely. She always grew lots of flowers. Eddie was an excellent seamstress who could look at a photo of a dress in a magazine and sew it to perfection. She passed along this sewing ability to her daughter and namesake, Edna Josephine "Jo" Bell Deal. Eddie's great-granddaughter Sharlotte remembers all the doll clothes she crocheted. Sharlotte also remembers the beautiful quilts made by Great-grandma Bell. Eddie taught her children that there was no shame in being poor, only in being lazy.

Even in her old age, when she was blind in one eye and had a broken hip, Edna insisted on living in her own home (though near her daughter Mary Caroline Irene Bell Smith). Her children installed an intercom system once she broke her hip so that they could come when she needed help. It was thought she would never walk on her own again, and when her children heard over the intercom someone walking around in her house, they rushed over to see who the intruder was. When they arrived, they discovered the walker was Edna who decided she would not let her hip keep her from walking.

Her heritage was English, Scots, and Irish, and she was a direct descendant of artist Joseph Badger.

Edna died at age 78 on July 13, 1959 near Hinesville in Liberty County, Georgia. She is buried at Little Creek Cemetery in Bryan County next to her beloved husband Clayton.

Thanks so much to daughter-in-law Nevada McClelland Bell and Bell and Downs family researchers for much of this information. Any errors, however, are mine alone. Please go to the "edit" link on this site with any corrections or additions.