Edna Johnson Balls was born in 1892, Mason, Tennessee the first child of Walter and Laura Johnson (Granny). By 1910 Edna married Jim Balls in Tennessee and they had Walter and Laura’s first grandchild James Edward “Woody” Balls (dec.). Edna and Jim also had several other children: Laura (dec.)– who was named after Granny, Bertha (dec.), Mammi, Priscilla, Margaret, and Lois.

Edna became an accomplished seamstress and a great cook. She made clothes for her family without using patterns and cooking was so good that she often was called on to cater.

Edna and Jim were the first of the family to migrate North. Jim worked in construction and owned a trucking business. Near the end of the 1910s, the Balls family moved around the Midwest, and for a while settled in Cairo, Illinois.

They finally settled in St. Louis. After blazing a trail north, other family members started moving to St. Louis.

Edna died on November 20, 1930 following complications from childbirth.