Edison served in Coconino County for over 40 years and played a key role in developing and leading the county’s Native American Election Assistance Program.

Edison died just months after working on tribal lands registering voters and coordinating ballot collection for the 2020 election. She was infected with the new coronavirus infection.

On Tuesday, county officials, Edison’s family and friends gathered for a memorial lunch and to celebrate her memory.

There was standing room only in the courthouse atrium on Cherry Street in downtown Flagstaff, where supervisors gather. A voter registration booth was set up on one side of the room, a warm tribute to Edison’s enduring efforts to encourage civic participation.

She was remembered Tuesday by former Coconino County Recorder Candace Owens as a tireless advocate of the right to vote, especially for Native American residents of Coconino County.

“She was working 12 days in a row and I was like, ‘I can’t work another day.’ She was mad at me, really mad at me.” So I said to Patty, “You tell her.” She has to go home to her,” Owens recalled in a wave of laughter as she gestured to Patti Hansen, the current Coconino County Recorder.

Edison began working for the Coconino County Registrar’s Office in 1979. Owens and Edison were in their twenties and started working in the county around the same time. According to Owens, the two “grew up” together during their careers.

“Anything could work for Alta… go to the bottom of Havasupai’s canyon and bring your ballot,” Owens said. “She will hire. She always had a lot of innovative things to do. She can always count on her.”

Edison was the kind of woman who could put an engine in a pickup truck and ride a horse with confidence. She was also good at building and maintaining relationships.

“[On the reservation] She knew where everyone lived, who they were related to, knew everyone in every community. I was just blown away by how knowledgeable she was,” Owens says here. “She went above and beyond to make sure everyone voted, every vote counted, and everyone was registered.”

Edison will eventually help people register to vote in rural areas where there are no street maps. She was known for her door-to-door registration activities and booths at trade fairs, rodeos and her community markets.

Colleagues said Edison had a knack for meeting people where they were and encouraging them to use their voice.

Under her leadership, Coconino County won the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s 2019 Clearinghouse Award for Innovation in Elections.

“The Elections Commission said at the time, ‘This program has emerged as a hub for coordinating the election-specific needs of communication, registration and voting on tribal lands.'” This includes coordinating polling stations, recruiting and training election officials, developing a customized Dineh language handbook to assist Navajo polling officials, and other efforts,” Hansen said.

Sure, Edison boasted a legendary work ethic in the county, but her family also had fun memories to share on Tuesday.

Edison was 37 when she became a grandmother. She is remembered by some of her grandchildren as a language teacher.

She speaks the Dain language and also helped develop the “Guide to Navajo Language”. This working document is designed to help voters decipher arcane election terms.

The guide is now available to voters anywhere the Navajo language is spoken.

One grandson remembers Edison as someone who speaks in the third person.

“Her grandson Jason… this is what he remembers. She said, ‘Grandma went to the store.’ Grandma is hungry.” She knows a lot about grandma,” Edison’s daughter, LaDonna Edison, shared on Tuesday.

Her daughter remembers Edison as a generous woman who shared her history and that of her community and culture.

“My mother liked to remind us that she wasn’t born in a hospital,” LaDonna recalls. “She pointed me to a place on a hill, with views of Sand, Her Springs to the north, and San Francisco, Her Peaks to the southwest.” It’s where your mother was born.”

Edison grew up near Sand Springs and roped logs into wash basins filled with rainwater and dried them to make firewood.

“She was the second oldest of her siblings. She had five sisters and two brothers … She graduated from the eighth grade of Tuba City Boarding School in 1972. I spent my summers herding sheep, herding cattle, riding horses and learning about Navajo traditions, culture and language,” said LaDonna.

Edison’s daughter remembered her mother driving down Indian School Road in Phoenix. She intended to use this opportunity to teach her children about the cruel history of boarding schools. Later, as she drove past the Indian Hospital, she reminded them that they were promised free medical care.

“This was her way of touring and educating us,” LaDonna said. “She educated people about the importance of voting and did not take their right to vote for granted. She told the younger generation how Native Americans were only recently granted citizenship. rice field.”

Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1924, but they were not guaranteed the right to vote. In Arizona, Native Americans were not given the right to vote until July 15, 1948, just nine years and three days before Edison was born.

As a Coconino County employee, Edison helped develop a culturally sensitive civic education and voter engagement program designed to meet the unique needs of all six Coconino County tribes.

It was a big undertaking, one that Edison tackled head-on.

Owens’ predecessor, County Recorder Helen Hudgens Ferrell, remembers Edison as someone who could literally catch a cow by its horns.

Edison once asked Ferrell for time off to help his family’s branded cows. She explains that she is a robber and the one tasked with turning over a young bull with a brand fire, much to Ferrell’s shock.

Ferrell recalled: “Alta wasn’t very tall, and I didn’t think she was muscular, but sure enough, when she came back, I asked, ‘Was it you who threw that cow? As a joke, she said, “Yeah, I grabbed it by the corner and flipped it over.”

Colleagues say it was her strength and perseverance that allowed Edison to persevere in 2020 in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic.

She organized drive-thru voter registration efforts and is credited with helping Native American voters turn out in record numbers. The 2020 Indigenous vote finally helped tip the balance in favor of Joe Biden. In Arizona, he won by more than 10,000 votes.

“We were very worried about her as she prepared for the 2020 elections, and we hoped and prayed that she would not contract COVID-19.” Ladonna said.

When Edison died in January 2021, her daughter said she couldn’t believe he was gone. She was so dedicated to her work that it was easy to imagine that her mother was simply “doing her job.”

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, as Secretary of State, worked with Coconino County’s pioneering Native American Assistance Coordinator to pay tribute to the Edison children. Edison’s daughter remembered her mother calling the office “SOS.”

The current governor wasn’t the only colleague to express his gratitude for the memory of Edison.

Two members of the Coconino County Facilities team handcrafted a beautiful juniper picture frame from their own harvested wood for Edison’s 2019 Clearinghouse Award-winning photo. The frames, photographs, and proclamations now hang in the courthouse.