Edith Lydia Blumhofer, 69, entered into her heavenly rest on March 5, 2020. She had battled pancreatic cancer with faith and courage for three-and-a-half years.

Edith was born in New York City on April 24, 1950 to Edwin and Edith Waldvogel. The family lived in Woodhaven, NY, which was at the time a quiet municipality in Queens. In 1952, Edith became a big sister to her twin siblings, Edwin and Grace.

The family was deeply involved in the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, where Edwin, Sr. pastored. Ridgewood remained a mainstay in Edith's life, as did Pilgrim Camp, an Adirondack retreat that was maintained by the church in the upstate town of Brant Lake, NY. For most summers between 2001 to 2019, Edith could be found cooking in the camp's kitchen for one or two weeks at a time.

On September 13, 1975, Edith married Edwin Blumhofer, of Glendale, NY. Their marriage began with a several-weeks' long honeymoon drive from New York City to the Grand Teton National Park and back. It was the first of countless trips together, most of which were by car or train (she hated to fly). Edith is survived by Edwin, as well as their three children, Jonathan (Rebecca), Judy, and Christopher (Stephanie), and six grandchildren: Chloë, Lydia, Marika, Benjamin, Angel, and Isaac.

Edith graduated from Hunter College in 1971. She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1977 as a Danforth Fellow. Subsequently, she taught at Hunter until 1982. That year, she accepted a teaching position at Southwest Missouri State University which, in turn, led to further appointments at the Assemblies of God Graduate School, Evangel College, and the Assemblies of God General Headquarters in Springfield, MO.

In 1987, Edith came to Wheaton College to teach history and work with the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE). She became director of the Institute in 1999 and, except for four years that took her to the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia and the University of Chicago, taught at Wheaton until 2017, when she retired as emerita professor of history.

Edith was a renowned scholar of American religious history and a prolific author. Her books include Pentecost in My Soul: Explorations in the Meaning of Early American Pentecostal Experience ; Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism and American Culture ; Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister ; The Assemblies of God Tradition: Religious Beliefs and Healthcare Decisions ; and "Her Heart Can See": The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby .

She co-wrote or edited more than a dozen additional books (including Sing Them Over Again to Me: Hymns and Hymn Books in America and Music and the American Religious Experience ), as well as scores of scholarly articles and publications in popular outlets like the Wall Street Journal and The Christian Century .

Edith's researching skills are legendary. She was at home in archives and library stacks; she had an endless patience for reading microfilm and for exploring new places and imagining the lives of her subjects. She also loved bringing others into the world of her  research. Students, assistants, and even her family were conscripted to help with research. She would get the most out of her assistants by rewarding them with trips to the best bakeries and coffee shops in whatever places they were conducting their work, from Northampton, MA, to the plains of Kansas and urban sprawl of southern California.

Outside of her work, Edith was an accomplished cook, world-class baker and doting grandmother. She loved entertaining her colleagues and students, often hosting department and class dinners at her home and baking scores of treats for department chapels at Wheaton.  She would send gift boxes of homemade sweets and cookies to her children and grandchildren around the country. She was an unchallenged success in games of Scrabble and, like her siblings, a New York Times crossword puzzle aficionado.

Throughout her years, Edith was a gifted pianist, trumpeter, and singer. Music and hymns marked her life with her parents, her siblings, her church, and with Edwin and her children. Hymns were a rich source of inspiration for her deep faith. Once, she had her family join the Methodist Church so that her children could learn the hymns of Wesley.  In her decades-long practice of singing, she rehearsed in this life the songs of the next. And she particularly found her voice in the music of Fanny Crosby:

All the way my Savior leads me;

Oh, the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised

In my Father's house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal,

Wings its flight to realms of day,

This my song through endless ages:

Jesus led me all the way,

This my song through endless ages:

Jesus led me all the way.

Edith's song is an ongoing encouragement to those by whom she is deeply loved and greatly missed.

Gifts in honor of Edith's life can be directed to Pilgrim Camp ( www.pilgrimcamp.net ) or to the Christian Health Service Corps, supporting Judy Blumhofer's ministry in Honduras ( https://www.healthservicecorps.org/missionaries/latin-america-missionaries/ ).

Visitation is at Hultgren Funeral Home in Wheaton, IL, 4–8 pm, on Monday, March 9. A funeral will be held in Wheaton at 7pm on Tuesday, March 10, at New Covenant Church in Naperville. A memorial service will also be held at 8 pm on Friday, March 13, at Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, NY. Burial will take place on Saturday, March 14, at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY.