Cee Edmundson led with courage, commitment

Cee Edmundson lived a life of service, whether it was in her career as an educator or her work with the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key as its first woman president.

She reminded family members and friends of her father, the late Lt. Gen. James Edmundson, who served in 181 combat missions in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War and earned 24 medals. He also served as Longboat Key commissioner and mayor.

“He was a man of great guts, and she was very similar to him,” retired Longboat Observer Senior Editor Dora Walters said. “She was a very fine person and took so much after her dad.”

Celia "Cee" Edmundson, of Longboat Key, died March 31, after a battle with cancer. She was 69.

Born Dec. 15, 1946, in Washington, D.C., she moved to Irvine, Calif. in 1980 and worked at a school for the deaf.

In 1982, the Irvine School District hired her, and she taught various grades. In 1988, she became administer of the Computer Education for Language Learning program for students with limited English proficiency. The state-of-the-art program became a model for schools across the country.

She earned her doctorate in education from Pepperdine University in 1996.

“She was a leader and a go-getter in whatever she was doing,” friend and neighbor Pam DeFratus said. “If she had a goal set, she plowed right through it. She was a very focused person.”

Edmundson moved to Longboat Key in 1997 to assist her father in taking care of her mother, Lee. Two years after her father’s death in 2001, she found a trunk of letters he wrote to his wife throughout their lifetimes. She published the letters in a book, “Letters to Lee,” in 2010.

“I think she thought people would find it really interesting,” Lea Edmundson, her sister-in-law, said.

She was a member of the Longboat Key Kiwanis Club from 1998 to 2007, serving as president from 2001 to 2002.

“She was a good leader,” Kiwanis Club member Vince DeLisi said. “She took her job very, very seriously, and certainly she always had my admiration for the person she was and the fact she was dedicated to her position and whatever endeavors she had.”

When Edmundson wasn’t leading, she was spending time with her pets, dog, Darby, and cat, Tessa.

“She loved animals,” Lea Edmundson said. “She even had a pet rat at one point. She had bunnies and cats and dogs and birds, and they all got along. Darby and Tessa were her joys.”

Edmundson also enjoyed her time on Longboat Key — even when it was too cold.

“She was always up for anything, and at one point after coming to Longboat, she really wanted to try a Sea-Doo,” Lea Edmundson said. “It was pretty chilly, and I remember telling her it was too cold. She said, ‘Cold is temporary, fun is forever’ and just took off. She was a lot of fun.”

Edmundson will be remembered for her warm, giving personality.

“What an inspiration she was,” longtime friend Janet Hunter said. “She was an absolutely loving person. She was always concerned about others and rarely talked about herself. She rarely ever complained. She was just so positive.”

She is survived by her brother, Edwin James Edmundson, and his wife, Lea, of St. Cloud; nephew, Scott James Edmundson, his wife, Haley West, and their two children, of Chimacum, Wash.; niece, Shelley Ann Edmundson, of Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; uncle, Clem Turner, of Portland, Ore.; and seven cousins.

A memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m. April 23, at Durante Park, 5550 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, the Longboat Key Garden Club for a dog park or Tidewell Hospice.

“Something she said was, ‘Sadness won’t last, but just the sweetness will remain,’ and we know she’d want us to remember that,” Lea Edmundson said.