Obituary of Dana Barry Edwards

Dana Barry Edwards, long time Back Mountain resident and businessman, died unexpectedly at his home Saturday night, July 14, 2018. He was born Oct. 29, 1935, the son of the late Dana LaRue Edwards and Elizabeth Bradbury Edwards, formerly of Dallas. Barry, who throughout his life, preferred his middle name instead of his first, attended public school in Trucksville and then Wyoming Seminary before transferring to the former Lehman High School where he received his diploma in 1954. He enlisted in the US Navy and served with the Seabees where he was top man in his training class and, as honor man, chose to participate in Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica. Later, he returned to the Back Mountain where he and his first wife, Geraldine, raised beef cattle on the 40-acre farm they owned. He was employed at Air Products in Wilkes-Barre for two years before leaving to establish the Barry Edwards Excavating Company in 1961. Over the next 55 years, he was a well-known figure as he drove his "Barry Edwards green" trucks and excavation equipment on Back Mountain roads. He often fooled his clients by singing (at least he was trying) operas (his favorite was "Carmen") instead of listening to modern day radio melodies blasting out of his truck's speakers. Barry was one in a million; he was stubborn, set in his ways, always wore the same type of work clothing (green pants and a light green shirt), got irritated when other people were not on time for appointments, loved his cats and dogs, and was his own mechanic on all his excavation equipment which was, and still is, in excellent working order. He plowed snow in the winter, pulled people from ditches when they got stuck, and once found an elephant leashed to a telephone pole. (A traveling circus truck broke down and the elephant in it spent the day eating grass along a Lehman Township dirt road. Barry swears it's a true story.) Barry made friends easily and many have called to express sympathy and sadness to his second wife, Barbara Loftus Edwards, who will miss him until the day she dies, even though he could not find a gallon of milk where it sat in front of him on the top shelf in the refrigerator. She was regularly accused of tossing things in the trash when he could not find an item he was sure he left at his place at the dining table, later finding it in his pocket or on top of his pile of magazines by the back door. Oh, the arguments! But this very wonderful, funny and good man who described himself as a ditchdigger impacted numerous workers and colleagues during his lifetime of hard labor and lasting friendships, teaching them the correct way to grade or crown a road so rain would runoff and not form potholes or the proper way of digging a cellar's foundation so sidewalls would not collapse. He was very proud, and rightly so, of his work with the earth. Barry is survived by his sister Faith and her husband Larry Sarratt, and a first cousin, David Bradbury and his wife, Jill, of Jackson Township, In addition to his family, there are longtime friends he considered family: Maggie and John T. Manzoni, John J. Manzoni, Willis Ide, Glenn and Thom Johnson, Ronnie Coolbaugh, Tom and Janet Evans, Elijah Evans and Scott and Myrtle Chamberlain and their children, Brenda, Zach, Chris and Josh. A private burial service will be held at the Edwards farm on Wednesday. There are no calling hours. Persons wishing to attend the Wednesday funeral may call his wife for the time.