Retired Chaplain, Hendrick Hospice Care
United Methodist Deaconess
Clyde, Texas
Chair, Board of Trustees
Board Member: 2017 to present
Current and Previous Civic and Volunteer Activities:
Clyde Boys and Girls Club – Advisory Board Member
Hendrick Hospice Care – Patient Care Volunteer and Staff Chaplain
The Haven Women’s Center – Counselor
Clyde Economic Development Corporation – Board Member
North Runnels Hospital – Board of Directors
Abilene Aggie Mom’s Club – Member and Club Secretary
United Methodist Church – UMW Mission u Presenter; Delegate to Annual Conference; Abilene District Lay Leader
Kathi Edwards grew up in nearby Callahan County and graduated from Clyde High School. She received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Education from Texas Tech University in 1975. After living in California for a number of years, Edwards and her husband, Murray, returned to Texas with their two young children, having purchased Alderman-Cave Feeds, a livestock feed manufacturing company in Winters. In 1992, Edwards began volunteering with Hospice of Abilene, which later became Hendrick Hospice Care, after the death of her 32-year-old brother-in-law, David Edwards, from kidney cancer. She continued this work for 16 years as a patient care volunteer, and eventually as a volunteer chaplain, before entering Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, where she received a Master of Arts in Christian Service in 2011. Edwards was consecrated to the Order of United Methodist Deaconess and commissioned by the Northwest Texas Annual Conference to serve in hospice ministry. She became a board-certified chaplain (B.C.C.) through the Spiritual Care Association. Upon completion of this process, she was employed as a staff chaplain with Hendrick Hospice Care until her retirement in January of 2021. She has been a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church.
Edwards and her husband, Murray, also a native of Callahan County, married in 1975 and live south of Clyde on their family ranch. Both their fathers are McMurry graduates (Weldon Edwards ’40 and C. Lee Smith ’78). The couple has three adult children: Rachel Stazzone (Rich), John-Morris Edwards (Aubrey), and Lincoln Edwards (Marjorie), as well as five grandsons and three granddaughters.