The Rev. George and Ardeth Edwards: Friendship Baptist’s first family of faith

It was 1953 when a Georgia boy first fell in love in southern Delaware.

The Rev. George Edwards, then 19 and not yet close to realizing his call to the faith, would make the trek to the First State during the summer to earn extra cash as a fish baiter at the old Lewes fish factory, once the source of a strong, stagnant smell that – somehow – locals grew to ignore.

"If you lived here long enough, it didn't smell like anything," he said, recalling watching visitors roll their windows up as they headed down the road on hot, summer days.

On one of his days off, George found himself at William C. Jason High School in Georgetown, captivated by one of the local cheerleaders. Ardeth, who is a couple years younger than George, wore black-and-white Oxford shoes with a green skirt and white sweater when she first met her future husband.

"I tried to blow him off," she laughed, slightly embarrassed as she recalled a fib she had told in hopes that George would lose interest. He didn't.

A few weeks later, they crossed paths in Lewes and something changed. Ardeth still wasn't impressed by his nice car or his strong self-confidence, but there was just something about him that inspired her to give him a chance.

Now, after 61 years of marriage, Ardeth says she couldn't imagine her life without George – a man she describes as her lover, her best friend, her pastor and the dedicated father of her children.

"As we've gotten older, we've gotten closer, and our love has gotten stronger," Ardeth says, prompting her husband to blush. "I don't know what I'd do without him."

Ardeth and George married in 1955, when Lewes was mostly a small community of black families. On weekend evenings the lovebirds donned their dancing shoes and joined friends for a laid-back evening of fun at the Happy Day Club on Fourth Street.

A lot has changed since then, George and Ardeth said. In his raspy, deep voice, George recalled a time when downtown Lewes was mostly fields where local children would play baseball on sunny spring days, and visitors would reel at the fishy smell.

"We've seen a lot of stuff happen here in 61 years," Ardeth said, recalling a time when segregation turned her and others away from white-only businesses. "We've seen different mayors, and we've seen Lewes change so much."

Otis Smith was mayor when George settled down with his bride in Lewes, a town that, at the time, had no Baptist church. George and others of his faith spent those early Sundays traveling from house to house to deliver Baptist services until, in 1957, Mayor Smith donated a building near Lewes Beach that would later become Friendship Baptist Church – the first Baptist church in town.

The fish factory closed and the open fields are gone, but the Baptist church has continued to grow. In 1969, George, Ardeth and the other founding members of Friendship purchased property on Fourth Street and moved the building there, where it still stands today.

"The church you see now, we've built around it," George says, beaming with pride and laughing at the memory of carting a whole building from the beach to its current location.

Years passed before George realized his true calling to serve the Friendship congregation. In the mid-1970s, he started on the path to become a pastor, a title he has held for nearly three decades.

"It's kind of rare to found a church, come up in the church and then wind up being the pastor," Ardeth says.

"Ever since I've been a member here, it's been like a family," George says. "We just got into the faith and started working."

Friendship's first lady says their faith has always been at the heart of their marriage.

"It is happiness, joy, peace," Ardeth said. "You get stronger as you keep going. Faith plays the biggest part. We can just lean on the Lord when different things happen to us."

The Edwards are long retired from their working careers with Kent Sussex Industries and General Foods and now enjoy their three grown children and four grandchildren. They spend most of their weekends at church activities – services, events, fundraisers or anything else their congregations needs. In George's time leading the church, he estimates he's done more weddings and funerals than many area preachers. He's not even sure how many lives and families he's touched.

"Everybody that meets him falls in love with him," Ardeth says, laughing about the dedication of one member of the congregation, an elderly woman who wouldn't dare let anyone speak ill of her pastor.

It's unlikely Ardeth would let that happen, either.

"He's just a loveable person, and he's so humble," she said. "If he jumped overboard, I'd jump overboard right behind him. And I can't even swim."