Brenda Gail Edwards, 65, passed away on October 10, 2026, in Dothan, Alabama, where she made her home for much of her life.
Gail was born on September 23, 1961, in Atlanta, Georgia, and was raised in Fairburn, Georgia. She was the daughter of the late Brenda Mayo and James Bishop Sr., and the stepdaughter of the late John Mayo, affectionately known as “Papa John,” who held a very special place in Gail’s heart and was a loving father to her throughout her life. Gail was a homemaker, but that hardly captures what she devoted her life to doing. She built her life around raising her children, caring for her family, and being there for the people she loved. Her five children were the center of her world, and as her family grew, so did her heart. Becoming a grandmother gave her even more people to love, laugh with, and worry about. She loved fiercely. She was funny, strong-willed, stubborn, and completely devoted to her family. Being a mom wasn’t simply something Gail did. It was a defining part of who she was. Through the good days, the hard times, and everything in between, she remained “Mom”. Gail was also a woman of faith and a cancer survivor who knew what it meant to fight. She enjoyed the simple things in life and was unapologetically herself. She loved settling in to watch Days of Our Lives or Court TV. Gail loved a Misty Blue 120 and a good warm cup of coffee. When Court TV was on, Gail wasn’t just watching she was doing her own investigation from the couch, forming her theories and probably deciding who was guilty long before everyone else.
Gail is survived by her five children: Nicole Vaughan and her husband, Jimmy; Alesha Flatt and her husband, Troy; Kim Sargent and her husband, Alex; Jeremy Edwards and his wife, Shanda; and Carly Kelley and her husband, Dylan. She is also survived by her beloved grandchildren, Hayleigh and Bentley Vaughan, Grayson and Adelyn Flatt, Callie Gail Edwards, Jerelyn Briar Kelley, and Sullivan Sargent, each of whom brought tremendous joy to her life and held a very special place in her heart. Gail is further survived by her sisters, Theresa Worley and her husband, Hoyt, and Dorothy Tarrer and her husband, Mike; Along with a gaggle of nieces and nephews including Matthew Waller, Chante Womack, Jenny Harrison, and their children. As well as many others.
She was preceded in death by the love of her life, Jerry Edwards; her Memaw and Pawpaw Irene and Harvey Stanfield; her mother Brenda Mayo and husband John Mayo, her father James Bishop Sr.; and her brothers, Jimmy Bishop Jr. and Danny Mayo.
Now reunited with her husband Jerry, Gail leaves behind a family that carries pieces of her with them. Her humor, her stubbornness, her strength, her faith, and, most of all, her love. Those pieces live on in the people they have become, in the families they have built, and in the love they give to one another.
Above all else, Gail was a mother. It was the role she poured her heart into, the title she carried with pride, and the legacy she leaves behind. Though her time here has ended, the love of a mother is a bond that even death cannot break. Her love remains our greatest inheritance. Of course, knowing Gail, love isn’t the only inheritance she left behind. Gail loved a good clearance sale. She firmly believed that if something was marked down far enough, there was probably a reason she needed it. She never met many things she couldn’t find a reason to keep, and she had a house full of treasures to prove it.
But more than any bargain she found or possession she held onto, Gail held most tightly to the people she loved.
She will be deeply missed, endlessly remembered, and forever loved.
Mom
Gigi
Brenda Gail Edwards
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”
