ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- To borrow a quote from a movie, “Everyone dies, not everyone truly lives.”

Judging from the outpouring of emotions following her death on Sept. 24, Lenora Edhegard was someone who truly lived.

A native of Silverhill, Edhegard, the daughter of Conway and Dorothy Edhegard, was a 1970 graduate of Robertsdale High School.

“She was a good kid,” said her mother in a recent interview. “Of course, I think all of my kids were good kids, but she truly was.”

All three of Lenora’s sisters, Ellen Benton, Naomi Davis and Becky Macon, remember her as an honest, caring, hardworking person who always put others first.

“Lenora was truly an amazing person,” said Ellen Benton, the youngest. “She was absolutely the happiest person I knew. She always had a smile on her face, even if things hadn’t gone so well during the day.”

Naomi Davis also remembers her sister as a caregiver, someone who always cared about and did for others.

“One of the things I remember growing up was that one of Nora’s roles in the family was to help take care of the younger kids, which I was one of,” Davis said. “I think she always had the mother instinct, which made it easy when she had her own family.”

They were all part of a close family, says Becky Macon, the oldest, particularly the four sisters. A brother, Mark, was killed by a drunk driver in 1977.

“Lenora and I were only 21 months apart and growing up during summer months we were always trying to run away (from) our little sisters,” Macon said. “We were too old for them of course. We did play a lot, did a lot of swimming in our cousins’ creek and Uncle’s pool, played croquet and tag with our cousins while the Aunts and Uncles drank coffee and talked on those Sunday afternoons.”

They rode horses, took church trips, hung out in the trees with their friends who lived on their street. They also worked on their parents’ chicken farm.

“Daddy paid us $1 a week to make the egg cartons and he let us sell tomatoes and cantaloupe during the summer so we made a little money all along,” Macon said.

There were fights, mainly about who was going to do the dishes, and there was school in the fall.

Following school, Macon said, they went their separate ways, both married and moved away. Macon raised her family, while Lenora raised two sons, John and Chris Oborne, who both live in Memphis, Tenn. In the early 80s, Macon and her sister ended up living in the same town in Mississippi.

“Lenora ended up being a single mom in those days so life was hectic, but she managed to make the best of things,” Macon said. “Over the years we ended up doing so many things together, went to church together, took ballroom dancing lessons, went to the movies, went shopping, out to eat, talked on the phone all of the time, worried over our families together, we even went on a cruise together that Lenora had won by donating blood.”

Lenora was always there, Macon said, to help with her grandchildren when she needed it, “and she was always there when I needed her.”

At one time, all four sisters lived in Jackson, Miss.

“It was so nice to have everyone in the same city,” Davis said, “and to share all of the experiences of raising kids and just everyday life.”

But things changed, Ellen and Naomi moved away at different times to different states.

“We will always treasure the time we had when we were all together,” Davis said.

During that time Lenora worked for Mutual of New York life insurance company and later for Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.

In 1987 she graduated from Vernon Regional Junior College in Vernon, Texas, earning an associate’s degree in secretarial administration. She made the President’s list with a 4.0 average and was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Fraternity that year.

She would eventually go to work for Daniel, Coker, Horton & Bell law firm as a legal secretary.

“Lenora was more than my legal secretary for 11 years, she was my friend,” said Jim Weems. “I can’t think of one day in which she was not a positive influence on me. She cared about me outside the office, my kids, my personal life, my teaching and my church. She never hesitated to pick me up when I felt bad, and she never hesitated to bringing me back to earth when I got too full of myself.”

Lenora and Peggy Eubanks were co-workers and friends the entire 19 years they worked together at the firm.

“She was a hard worker and a very loyal employee,” Eubanks said. “She was always willing to help out by staying late or working extra.”

In fact, Eubanks said, the secretaries rotated being on call on the weekends in emergencies. One weekend, a couple of months ago, Lenora offered to work for Eubanks so she could visit her 95-year-old grandmother who had recently fallen and broken her hip.

“We always try to accommodate each other when we have conflicts with our on-call weekends, but I very much appreciated her kindness to me at that time,” she said.

It would turn out to be the last weekend of Lenora Edhegard’s life.

The following Tuesday, friends and co-workers became concerned when Lenora did not show up for work. Following a massive search, her body was found later that night.

Police would later arrest 30-year-old Cortrell Rose, who was found driving her vehicle in Jackson.

Rose, a registered sex offender, had been living next to Lenora in Brandon, even though he had reported another address.

“This was a tragic and senseless criminal act,” said Roy A. Smith Jr., another attorney who worked with Lenora her entire 19 years at the firm. “We are deeply saddened. Lenora was an excellent legal secretary and did an outstanding job every day. She was a very fine person and close friend to everyone at our office.”

Following Lenora’s death, family members reached out to her friends and co-workers asking them to share their thoughts about Lenora. The emails came pouring in to Lenora’s family.

“It was overwhelming,” said her mother. “I never realized what an outgoing person she was.”

“I miss you and me enjoying life together,” said longtime friend and co-worker Stacy Lowrance.

Lowrance said she and Lenora shared a lot together, particularly a love of Atlanta Braves baseball.

“I miss us moaning over the Braves lack of hitting and wondering if they would make the playoffs, or us high fiving when the Braves won the night before,” Lowrance wrote. “I miss your visits to my office discussing the Braves’ players and how they should either keep or get rid of them. I miss my Braves buddy.”

Betty Payne worked with Lenora for 17 years at the firm.

“My work day is not the same without her,” she said. “She was genuine and I will always cherish our time together.

Annette Coker Busbice, a paralegal at the firm, worked with Lenora for 13 years.

“She was such a lovely, caring, Christian woman and it was such a great honor and blessing to have her as my friend,” she wrote. “I miss her every day.”

Ann Puckett described an incident with Lenora that spoke to her caring nature.

“I remember her bringing gardenias to work and putting them in a little bottle on the ledge of her desk,” Puckett wrote. “I told her once I loved those flowers but could not seem to grow them.”

Lenora went home and rooted a gardenia bush for her. When it got big enough she told Puckett she thought it was ready.

“I told her ‘okay, but you know I have already killed two of these plants,” Puckett said. “She said, ‘I will just keep it though the winter for you.’ This was her nice way of saying, ‘You will kill it if I give it to you now.’ HA! She did care for it through the winter and gave it to me in the spring. It is about six feet tall now.”

Stephanie Bracey has only worked at the firm since April, but described Lenora as someone who was always willing to help out with a smile on her face.

“Even though I only knew her for a short time she left a great impression on me that I will never forget,” Bracey wrote.

Her sisters shared their thoughts about Lenora as well.

“Lenora, there is not a day goes by that I don’t think of you,” Benton wrote. “It is hard to believe I can’t call you on the phone and hear your voice. I still want to dial your number, but I’m afraid someone will answer and it won’t be you.”

For Macon, who was closest to her sister, definitely in distance, there is a similar sentiment.

“We were there for each other and we only lived three miles apart so it was so easy to get together,” she wrote. “I am lost without her. She was a bright and shining star in my life.”

For Davis it is better to focus on how Lenora lived, rather than how she died.

“We talked weekly, shared daily emails and would all meet in Silverhill as often as we could to visit with our parents and help them with whatever they needed help with,” she said. “We will all miss her on those visits, the daily emails and the weekly phone calls. We will miss her. Sometimes life isn’t fair but life goes on.”