Alice B. (Bacon) Edgerton

Alice Bacon Edgerton of Medford, NJ passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.  Born September 15, 1985, she was the only child of Steve Edgerton and Mary Ann Bacon, who raised Alice at their home in a beautiful, wooded area of Medford, New Jersey. Alice’s family ran nearby Camp Dark Waters, a Quaker-affiliated summer camp for children, which touched the property of her home and deeply influenced many aspects of her life, most evidently in her love of the outdoors and eventual career in horticulture. Led by the Edgertons, the camp’s mission was to provide children with an experience based on Quaker values such as integrity, community, kindness, and stewardship, and those values guided and effectively sum up the way Alice lived life. 

Alice possessed incredible energy, was outrageously funny, and a fiercely loyal friend. That loyalty was apparent in the efforts she made to visit her loved ones all over the globe, and when she couldn’t be there in person, she was a superior letter and postcard writer. Alice also had a strong moral compass that was informed by her Quaker upbringing. She was incredibly honest. If she thought you had done something wrong, she did not hesitate to let you know. She challenged all of us to be better, and we still feel her calling us to that task. 

Alice was a sometimes terrifying driver, and many of her friends will cherish memories of rides with music at high volume, sometimes on long cross-country trips, and often with unintentional detours. Alice’s many friends are unprepared to live without her coming into their everyday life like a whirlwind--sometimes with a force that literally broke objects--giving homemade gifts, laughing, swearing, dragging her friends up to sing or dance, and hugging them tightly. Her close friends are grateful to have witnessed this spirit and will do their best to hold it in their hearts and carry it forward in their lives.

Alice was a member of many communities. She stayed close with classmates from Moorestown Friends School; Earlham College, where she studied Sociology and Anthropology; and the  University of Delaware, where she was awarded a Master’s of Science (or, as she liked to say, a “Mistress of Science”) in Public Horticulture. Her Quaker community was also very important to her, and she was a member of the Central Philadelphia Meeting. In each of these places, she made meaningful friendships.

Alice was a steward of the natural world. She began her post-undergraduate career in 2009 as a Project Manager at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She left that job in 2011 to pursue a certificate in Ecological Horticulture at the University of California Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. When she returned to Philadelphia, Alice continued to work as a gardener and landscaper before completing her education at the University of Delaware. Upon graduation, she started her own gardening business, gathering clients from all over Philadelphia and designing, installing and maintaining their residential gardens, many of which can still be seen all over Philadelphia. Green shoots that she planted are beginning to emerge and that feels like a gift that she is still giving us, reminding us to take care and nurture the world around us. 

Alice was also a musician, and music was a big part of her life. This included managing her beloved college radio station WECI, playing drums in multiple bands and for friends’ birthday parties, discovering a shared love of a particular artist or introducing new music to friends, making up silly songs, and, of course, dancing. Music touched her life deeply, and so many of the memories that have been shared about Alice involve music.

Alice defied her sickness, and it never stopped her from caring for others and doing exactly what she wanted. Even in her last week of life she was optimistic and determined to live, and she gave everyone else that same optimism. She did not lose her battle with cancer—she hated that metaphor—and she did not let cancer dictate how she lived. Even while she was sick, she insisted on gardening, moved bricks and concrete, attended birthday parties and weddings, fixed and built things for others, and, in 2019, traveled with her mother to see the superbloom in Southern California.

Alice was preceded in death by her father, Steve, in 2014. She is survived by her mother Mary Ann, her boyfriend John Sheppard, her cat Craig, and many friends and extended family, all of whom she loved dearly. 

On May 17th at 11:00 AM Camp Dark Waters will be holding a Zoom Memorial Meeting for Worship for Mary Ann Bacon and Alice Edgerton.  Please join us as we remember and honor these amazing souls that have touched the lives of so many of us. We welcome all who know Mary Ann and Alice to share in the celebration of their lives.  It will be a Quaker Memorial service, where we will come together in silence to become inwardly still as we reflect on their lives.  Some friends will be moved to speak and share memories or offered thoughts, others will not, what is important is coming together as a community.  In this difficult time, it is a wonderful opportunity to come together to remember Mary Ann and Alice and their incredibly positive impact on the many communities they belonged to. We will be holding the Memorial Meeting via Zoom.  If you are using a computer, follow the link below. If it is your first-time using Zoom, it will prompt you to download the software. If you are calling in, dial the number below.  Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/2225368147, If you would prefer to call in: +1 646 558 8656 with the Meeting ID: 222 536 8147.  In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, memorial donations may be made to Earth Quaker Action Team, 4510 Kinsessing Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19143.  (www.EQAT.org) (www.BradleyStow.com)

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Alice B. (Bacon) Edgerton, please visit our floral store.