Edmonds, who died Sunday at age 80 after a period of declining health, spent 31 years as publisher of the Durham-based Carolina Times, the state's oldest black newspaper. She inherited the job from her father, Louis Austin, whose belief in the newspaper as a voice for the voiceless influenced her more than anything else, her son, Kenneth, said this week.

A memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. today at St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church on Fayetteville Street.

Edmonds learned the newspaper business from her father, who taught her to respect all opinions and never to back down from a challenge. He led through action, covering the civil rights era even as a cross was burned in the family's yard and tomatoes were hurled at his home.

"He believed the columns in the newspaper were for fighting for justice and equality for all; if they were purple people or green people, it really didn't matter," Kenneth Edmonds recounted. "She wanted to continue that legacy so the columns of the newspaper could be used for debate on any issue."

Vivian Austin Edmonds was a 1944 graduate of Hillside High School and a 1948 graduate of N.C. Central University. She later received a master's degree from NCCU as well, and eventually did every job the family newspaper offered before taking over as publisher in 1971, when her father died.

She set out from Durham for awhile, as a guidance counselor for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system in the mid-1970s. But she was never far from the ink stains and news columns.

"This is something she was brought up, reared in, believed in," Kenneth Edmonds said. "She was always in and out and keeping an eye on what was going on."

Cash Michaels, editor and chief reporter for The Carolinian, a black newspaper in Raleigh, credited Edmonds with understanding her father's dreams and running with them.

"You took your life in your hands when you spoke out, when you challenged the power structure," said Michaels, who also writes for the Wilmington Journal, a black newspaper in Wilmington. "She saw all of this. She saw the dangers. She saw taking a stand for the community. The Carolina Times is still a beacon. It is still a voice."

In 1988, Edmonds was inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame.

Graveside rites will be administered at noon Saturday at Beechwood Cemetery on Fayetteville Street in Durham. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to St. Joseph's AME Youth Scholarship Fund.

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