By PHOEBE DONALD ROBINSON / Community Columnist

“Two Columbiana brothers, J.E. (Gene) Edmondson and J.W. Edmondson recently received commemorative bricks at the Lt. Col. Robert A. Hume Scout Plaza in downtown Columbiana for the Memorial Day weekend,” wrote daughter Dell Moody. “The brothers served in WWII. Gene joined the Army in 1942 and was sent to Louisiana for basic training. From there he was selected for OCS at Fort Belvoir, VA. He was stationed at Ft. Campbell, Illinois, as a captain and served in Europe with the Corps of Engineers. Gene was honorably discharged in 1945. Gene passed away in 2001. His two daughters, Dell Moody and Mary Gene Denney, and son Mac Stinson live in Columbiana. He is survived by four grandsons, two granddaughters, nine great-grandsons, four great-granddaughters, and one great, great grandson.

“J.W. Edmondson joined the Army in 1942 at age eighteen. He was stationed at Ft. Campbell along with his brother. He served in England, France and drove an ambulance for the 115^th General Hospital in Germany. He, too, was honorably discharged in 1945. His family includes his wife Margaret of sixty-four years, two daughters, Judy Branch and Jane Stainback and one granddaughter Christy Edmondson.”

“J.W. Edmondson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Edmondson, was born August 17, 1925, in Columbiana,” wrote Mildred White Wallace, editor of the Shelby County Democrat, about the two brothers in The Democrat in 1945. “He attended Columbiana Grammar School and Shelby County High School … He is now somewhere in England worthily representing his native County that proudly salutes him today.

“Lt. J.E. Edmondson, known to all his friends and people of Columbiana as Gene….was born in Columbiana, May 9, 1919,” continued Wallace. “He attended Columbiana Grammar School and Shelby County High School. Greetings and good wishes from The Democrat are on their way to him today to a hospital in England where he is convalescing from wounds received in a recent battle for ‘Freedom.’”

The brothers returned to Columbiana to raise their families. Gene died in 2001 and wife Adell died in 2014. J.W. and wife Margaret live in Columbiana today.

Today, the Shelby County Reporter salutes Columbiana native sons and WWII veterans, J.W. and the late Gene Edmondson.