Edith B. Macinnes

Edith Burns MacInnes was born in West Newton, Massachusetts on October 2, 1913, the only daughter of Arthur and Josephine Burns. She was the eldest of four children, one of whom died at an early age. Her earliest memories were from Georgia, where her parents lived for several years before moving to New Jersey when her father landed a job at the New York Herald Tribune.

Edith lived first on Woodside Avenue and then on Cottage Place in Ridgewood. She attended Ridgewood High School, and by the time she graduated, she was an accomplished pianist and contemplating a career in music. After a year at Wooster College in Ohio, however, she discarded that idea, and transferred to Simmons College in Boston, where she studied English.

After graduating from Simmons, she got a job assisting Godfrey Dewey, the son of the fabled Melville Dewey, who had invented the Dewey Decimal System well known to anyone who has ever tried to find a book in a library. Godfrey, at the time Edith worked for him, was writing a series of educational manuals on his system of personal shorthand, a skill she excelled at for the rest of her working life. After a year with Godfrey, however, the charms of the country life faded and Edith longed to seek her fortune in the big city.

Edith and her Simmons friend Enid Morgan, who later would marry her brother Bud, decided to move to New York City and get an apartment together. In New York, Edith landed a job with Alma Archer, who ran a beauty school. Part of her job was to answer letters requesting advice. Edith relished this task and happily doled out advice on matters she freely admitted to knowing nothing about. Later she worked for Mademoiselle Magazine and N.W. Ayer, an advertising agency.

It was during this time that Edith met her true love, Archibald MacInnes, who initially impressed her with his strong resemblance to King George. The couple was married on February 6, 1942 in an intimate ceremony at Edith's homestead on Cottage Place in Ridgewood.

Soon after, Arch entered the Army and was stationed in Boca Raton, Florida. Edith became a member of the Women's Army Corps. Luckily, Arch did not have to serve overseas, and the couple gave birth to a daughter, Laurie Jane, in 1945 while in Boca Raton.

After the war, the family moved back to Ridgewood and lived for a year with Edith's parents at Cottage Place. They then purchased a house in nearby Midland Park, where they lived for the next 35 years. A son, Arch (the third), was born in 1948 and another, Alan Richard, in 1958.

Besides raising the kids and taking care of her hard-working husband, Edith found time to play the piano for the Tone-Aires, a madrigal group she performed with for some sixteen years. She also was a member of the Ridgewood Singers and served as their publicity chairman. The family belonged to the Ridgewood Episcopal Church, where Edith sang in the church choir for many years. She was also active in the Simmons Club of New Jersey.

Edith had a lifelong passion for antiques and the couple frequently bored their children to near death with vacation road trips that included stops at every antique shop in New England. Arch had an impressive collection of antique American shelf clocks and Edith had an equivalent obsession with Westward Ho glassware and old snuff boxes.

In retirement, Edith spent many happy hours painting oils and watercolors, and participated in many local art shows in Spring Hill.

The couple moved back north in 1999 to be closer to family and spent their remaining years in Rochester, New York.

Edith spent three years at Latta Road Nursing Home and we give special thanks for the loving care she received while there.

We will remember Edith above all as a kind and loving person with a forgiving heart and a keen wit. Her prodigious vocabulary, her penchant for impromptu poetry and her love of music were always evident. She spoke her mind with clear and unassailable logic and easily won the love of all who knew her.
We will miss her.