William Bennett Edwards of Afton died on September 7th. He was 80 years old.

He is survived by Virginia, his wife of 54 years, and a cousin, Rebekah Tressel of Waynesboro.

Born in Auburn, New York, "Bill" was the son of John Bowen Edwards, a Greek scholar and teacher, originally from Alderson, W.Va. Bill's mother, Virginia Bean Edwards, from Gala Water, Virginia, was the daughter of William Bennett Bean, a 2nd Lieutenant in the Baltimore Light Artillery, CSA.

Bill lived with his family in Baltimore until he left to attend the University of Chicago.

While there he also began writing a book, which upon completion gave him considerable international fame: "The Story of Colt's Revolver," a biography of Sam Colt and his contribution to the history of 19th century technology.

In Chicago Bill became associate editor of The Gun Digest and technical editor of Guns Magazine, his creation and the first of many guns magazines.

A technical director of Mars-Centennial Arms Co., he was also the owner of Benet Arms, an importing firm that dealt with factories in Japan, Italy and Switzerland.

Bill had met his wife, Virginia, a pianist and music historian, on the campus of the University of Chicago. Married in 1954, they moved to Evanston, a northern Chicago suburb.

Chicago is very cold in the winter. They traded their big dark red Harley-Davidson motorcycle for an enclosed car: a black 1933 V12 Cadillac limousine.

This was convenient to take their cats, Purrier and Ives, on trips by rolling up the glass partition between front and back seating areas, giving the animals a big play area.

Bill completed his second major book, "Civil War Guns," and in 1962 they left for Afton Mountain, Virginia, near Waynesboro, where his family had built a summer home in 1927, the year Bill was born.

The following spring Bill, Virginia, and the two cats departed for San Francisco in the '33 Caddie. They braved flood waters at the Mississippi, a blizzard in the Rockies, and a sand storm in Death Valley.

For six years in San Francisco, Bill operated a retail gun shop, called Gold Rush Guns.

In 1968 they bought the Afton Mountain family home from his elderly parents. Bill converted the stone garage into a retail store, Gold Rush II.

He was a member of the National Rifle Association, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship.

A memorial service will be held in Bill's memory this Saturday, October 18th, at 3 p.m. at the Waynesboro Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship on Pine Avenue and 14th Street.