“I believe you should help other people. That’s just my way of life. After all, happiness comes from sharing and helping others.”
                                                                                             —Eddilera Kinzer

Eddilera Emozel Kinzer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 27, 1925. She was the second of the three children of the late Edward Lee Kinzer, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and his wife, the former Willie Belle Flagg, who was a college-educated woman with a passion for music. Eddilera’s name was her mother’s musical play on her father’s nickname — Eddie Lee. Eddilera’s maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also ministers in the AME Church.

Eddilera attended public schools in Philadelphia and graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1942. She received early training in music from her mother and went on to graduate from Settlement Music School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wilberforce University in 1946, where she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She became a “Golden Soror” in 1996. She completed post-graduate work at Temple University and Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.

Eddilera began her career as an educator in Delaware. When she was not permitted to purchase a soda at a train station there, she took and passed, at the next opportunity and without additional preparation, the exam that qualified her to teach in the Philadelphia public schools. Eddilera was employed by the School District of Philadelphia for almost forty years, first as an elementary school teacher. She was then invited to join its Division of Music in the first and only group of music consultants to help enrich the music programs in grade schools.

Concurrently, Eddilera served as an organistlchoirmaster in several churches in the Delaware Valley. Eddilera considered music to be her “fountain of youth.” Occasionally, just for fun, she would invite friends to a “musicale” at her home. They could request favorite songs, and Eddilera would accompany them from a seemingly endless variety of music of every genre in her repertoire. Among the many voluntary music activities in which she participated, Eddilera received great joy from “Songsters Unlimited”, a fifty-member chorus of senior adults that she founded at the Center in the Park (CIP) in Germantown. Under Eddilera’s direction, “Songsters Unlimited” performed around the city, particularly at nursing homes, schools, and other centers.

Eddilera was an avid participant in the civil rights movement. During the marches in the 1960’s, Eddilera noticed banners from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). This, plus other observations over a period of time, led her to believe that the UUA shared common values with her. She became a member of the Unitarian Society of Germantown in April 1979 and, in the ensuing years, used her many talents to serve the church and the UUA.

She raised the funds needed to restore the pipe organ at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. She was a trustee-at-large in the Middle Atlantic Joseph Priestly District of the UUA and a member of the UUA Hymnal Revision Committee. Her interests in young people and diversity eventually led to her service as a trustee of the Meadville Lombard Theological School, a UUA seminary in Chicago. At the time of her death, she was serving on the UUA Mid-Atlantic Regional Subcommittee on Candidacy, which works with women and men who are interested in UU ministry. In April 2000, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration in Mount Airy honored her with the Fifth Annual Rudolf Gelsey Social Justice Award for her dedication to social justice and civil rights, advocacy for older adults and children, mentoring of seminarians and aspiring ministers, and service as a musician to area churches and to CIP. In 2000, the Joseph Priestly District of the UUA presented her with the Unsung UU Award recognizing her contributions to the denomination. In November 2001, the Eddilera Kinzer Fund for Seminarians was established to honor Eddilera for her continuing work with seminarians.

The Philadelphia chapter of the Wilberforce Alumni Association selected Eddilera as the chapter honoree at the 2001 banquet of the Inter-Alumni Council of the United Negro College Fund. Eddilera also was a past president and current member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Interfaith Movement (NIM), a nonprofit, non-sectarian organization in northwest Philadelphia that operates programs to support and provide advocacy services for children, the elderly, and families and to strengthen interfaith understanding.

Even with her very active professional and volunteer life, Eddilera always had time for her family and friends. She was devoted to her father and mother and cared for them until their deaths in 1968 and 1969 respectively. “Eddi” was a loving and protective older sister to Judi. “Squeaky”, as she was affectionately called by her older brother and some of her friends, was a dedicated sister-in-law who helped with the care of her brother, William, during a long period of illness that resulted in his untimely death in 1964. “Aunt T.T.” was a vital and steadfastpresence in the lives of her nephew, the late William (“Chip”), and her niece, Patricia. Indeed, “Aunt Eddi” established and maintained close relationships with several “nephews” and “nieces” among the children and grandchildren of her close friends. To her family and friends, Eddilera was an independent thinker, a respected and trusted confidante, and a sensitive, wise and candid counselor, who was also gifted with a clever, and occasionally mischievous, sense of humor.

Eddilera departed this life on December 17, 2003, after a six-month bout with cancer. To Eddilera, the most difficult part of her illness was the diminishment of her ability to be actively involved with the activities and people that she loved. She once said that, “the greatest pleasure comes from knowing that my life has not been lived in vain.” Honoring and celebrating Eddilera’s life are her sister, Julilia K. Tolson; her niece, Patricia Kinzer Dandridge; her sister-in-law, Eva K. Reed; cousins Edward Brooks, Thelma Frazier, Elizabeth Floyd, and Jeanette Floyd; and the many friends, neighbors, colleagues and sorors whose lives she touched.