STOP leader Edith Jones passes away

HAMPTON ROADS, Va (WAVY) - Edith Jones, who dedicated her life to standing in the gap for low income children and families, and headed the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project, or STOP Organization, died Tuesday morning.

Funeral services will be held at Calvary Revival Church in Norfolk on Tuesday, June 1 at noon.

Jones oversaw 37 head start centers, 14 vocational training sites, and a number of community programs as the President and CEO of STOP. In the role she accepted in 1991, she shared a heart to help people from Southampton County to Virginia Beach.

"Edith was such a warm, generous, a very important person in this community. To learn of her unexpected loss is tragic," said Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim.

Fraim is one of many community leaders who watched Jones' commitment improve people's lives. Portsmouth Councilman Charles Whitehurst said her passing is "a horrible loss."

"She had a great warm engaging smile, but she was a strong business woman as well. Highly respected, very gifted," Fraim said. "Edith Jones was the driving force behind this incredibly important force for good in this community."

People say Jones got things done. Under her leadership, STOP grew to become the largest community action agency in Virginia, assisting families in a territory of more than 2,000 miles.

"[She] was the driving force behind this incredibly important force for good in this community," Fraim said. "She brought it from a very small organization into this multi-million dollar complex that it is now."

Dominion Virginia Power's Chuck Penn spent years partnering with STOP and its leader.

"Because of what she's done, their are scores of families from all walks of life throughout Hampton Roads who have benefited from her tenacity," Penn said. "Edith...when I think of Edith, I always smile. Edith to me was the essence of tenacity."

The STOP organization provides Head Start services for the young, repairs for struggling homeowners, and anything else Jones decided could fill a need.

In 1997, the non-profit made a donation of 100 smoke detectors with batteries to the Norfolk Fire department. A day before the donation, two young boys in STOP Head Start were killed in a house fire. There were no working smoke detectors in the home.

Jones said at the time, she asked herself, "What can we do to try and insure this doesn't happen again?"

In 2009, when Congress made stimulus money available, Edith Jones had STOP in position to receive more than $10 million for weatherization, Head Start, and health career training programs.

Those who worked with Jones said losing her is a loss for Hampton Roads.

"You always knew where she stood. So it's going to be a little different without Edith there," said Penn.

"Edith was the real thing," Fraim added. "She was a great friend to everybody who needed help. And you can't replace Edith, we just have to see how we move forward."

Jones spent nearly 40 years working with the STOP organization.