Memorial Services for Lorena Bell Edwards, Age 93 of Nashville, Tennessee (born in Mountain Grove, Missouri) will be held on Thursday, December 4th, 2025 at The National First Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee beginning at 11:00 AM. Visitation will be held prior, beginning at 10:00 AM. Burial will be in The Hillcrest Cemetery, Mountain Grove, MO.
Lorena Bell Edwards, age 93, of Nashville, Tennessee, died on November 24, 2025.
She was born in Mountain Grove, Missouri, on July 11, 1932, to Elzie and Ina Edwards. Growing up on a dairy farm, Lorena attended Fairview Elementary School, a one-room schoolhouse, for eight years and then attended Mountain Grove High School. After relocating to Springfield, Missouri, she graduated from Springfield Central High School in 1950. Continuing her education in 1952, Lorena enrolled in college in Nashville, Tennessee, at the institution that is now known as Welch College and later transferred to George Peabody College for Teachers, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business education in 1957, a master’s degree in business education in 1972, and an education specialist degree in 1975.
Lorena worked as a teacher for 47 years, instructing and inspiring countless numbers of young people while teaching at Fairview High School in Williamson County, Tennessee; Hendersonville High School in Sumner County, Tennessee; and Peabody Demonstration School in Davidson County, Tennessee. Also, Lorena was a member of the group that established the University School of Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee, teaching students from its founding until 1981. Lorena joined the faculty at Belmont University in 1981 and continued teaching there until she retired in 2004.
In addition to her outstanding career in education, Lorena served as a board member at the Nashville Rescue Mission from 1992 until 2023. During part of her time on the Nashville Rescue Mission board, she was honored as the first woman to serve as chairperson. She was also an active member of the Passages Sunday School class at Nashville First Baptist Church.
Lorena was preceded in death by her parents, Elzie Foster Edwards and Ina Isabelle Edwards, and her brothers, Herbert Edwards and Tharold Edwards, and is survived by her sisters, Ila Edwards and Lou Anne Krieg, along with many beloved cousins, nieces, and nephews.
