EDWARDS – Plymouths that Wilkins &#8220Sonny” Montgomery used to sell probably made a stop or two in this town before their owners took off on once-bustling U.S. 80 for points east or west.

Now 79, Montgomery can only reminisce about how tiny Edwards hummed with activity in the 1930s and 1940s, the era of the five-and-dime stores, houses that built for under $5,000 and, later, Hubbard Motor Company, where he worked.

&#8220There was Miss Marie Angelo’s place. Man, she could cook. We had a lot of little grocery and dry goods stores then,” Montgomery said, slowly rattling off names with rote clarity.

&#8220Walton’s. A.J. Lewis. J.B. Miller. Senseman’s. They were all big here in the 1940s. Then, I worked Saturdays at the Jitney-Jungle on Main Street after the war,” Montgomery said.

Jitney was a Mississippi-grown supermarket chain. Edwards has no such stores today.

As was the case in many other towns on federal highways, the busy atmosphere began to fade in the 1960s when the interstate system started moving people about towns instead of through them.

With time, those who ran family businesses began to die off, with their children moving on to college, other lines of work, other towns, Montgomery said.

Montgomery, whose grandfather founded the Bank of Edwards in 1902, stayed in the Hinds County community halfway between Jackson and Vicksburg after returning from the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II.

With a brother-in-law, he began Hubbard Motor Company, sharing a building at Magnolia and Old Highway 80 with H&M Gas Company.

In 1974, Montgomery became president of the gas business as the car sales began to fade. Just last year, the gas business was sold to his son Bill, 46, one of eight sons and 14 grandchildren.

The company’s new day-to-day operator paints a picture of an area that reflects the sentiments of many who have come and gone from this town 1,320 people now call home.

&#8220If it weren’t for the churches, we wouldn’t meet anyone. There’s really no social gathering points other than that,” he said.

Edwards’ once-active downtown sector, primarily along Front, Utica, and Withers streets is awash in abandoned, decaying buildings that offer only slight hints of their former luster. Attempts at business in the last 10 years have largely failed, most notably a Taco Bell inside a service station just off the Edwards exit on Interstate 20.

Some, such as the building on Front Street that housed Senseman’s, a five-and-dime store, and later J.M. Grocery and Produce, got a temporary facelift in 2000 when portions of the film &#8220O Brother, Where Art Thou” were shot here, but the windows are boarded again.

&#8220The town was an absolutely lovely place. It’s distressing to see it now,” said Dorothy Brasfield, a 52-year resident and organist for Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, in Vicksburg.

&#8220I miss it. It was a quiet town. I had an account at the Bank of Edwards at 12 years old,” said Joe Haggard, 35, grandson of onetime Edwards police chief Larry Haggard, who grew up and lived in Edwards until moving to Vicksburg within the last year.

Despite the presence of more memories than progress, hope for spurring the community toward better times is not completely lost.

&#8220We have a good mayor now. He’s knowledgable and is trying to help,” Brasfield said.

That mayor is longtime area resident R.L. Perkins, 56, elected to his first term last June with almost twice as many votes as his closest challenger in a four-candidate race.

Among his short-term goals is to land a viable grocery store, he said.

Another is to &#8220be aggressive and hire more police, experienced officers,” he said, adding the biggest complaints from elderly residents is speeding and loitering.

Currently, six officers staff the police department, housed in a modest cinder-block facility at Utica and Withers streets. Pending background checks, another three will be hired within two months, Perkins said.

The department received some much-needed help a week ago. Two Ford Crown Victorias being retired by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department were donated to bolster the fleet of one 1980s-era Chevrolet Caprice Edwards police have now.

&#8220I’m very appreciative,” Chief Louis Johnson said. &#8220I think it’s the first time they’ve donated cars to us. It will help us a lot.”

Assisting a small community that, like others in the area, routinely helps Warren County locate and arrest suspects with outstanding warrants is &#8220beneficial to us and them,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said later.

Johnson asked for the vehicles after a rush-hour chase on Feb. 21 involving Warren County sheriff’s deputies, police officers from the Vicksburg and Clinton departments and Mississippi Highway Patrol that led them through Edwards into Hinds County where an arrest was made.

An ongoing discussion continues with officials of BancorpSouth, the modern incarnation of the Bank of Edwards after an acquisition by Merchants Bank in 1995, then a buyout by BancorpSouth in 1998.

The branch alongside City Hall, itself housed in the Bank of Edwards’ former digs, has been a drive-thru only since a rash of robberies about two years ago. Since then, the narrow street in front of the building has become a traffic tie-up, Perkins said.

&#8220As it is, you can only deposit checks and withdraw money there. You can’t have a community without a grocery store and a bank,” Perkins said.

As for long-term goals, the city is working with Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to initiate a 20-year land use plan, one that Perkins said would bring zoning to Edwards for the first time.

Additionally, Perkins would like to eventually see the city limits expand through annexation.

&#8220We can’t ever have an industrial park without either,” Perkins said, alluding to another long-term vision.

More tangible signs of hope for Edwards’ future lies in a trend that has people moving back into the area to renovate homes.

&#8220We’re starting to see a good turnover,” said deputy city clerk Nancy Duren, in charge of property permits. &#8220I’ve seen 10 to 20 homes purchased in the last few months.”

In addition to that, some of the town’s more remembered properties have been purchased and are being restored, such as the home of the Bankston family who operated a grocery store during the town’s heyday in the 1940s.

Two others are the gymnasium of the now-defunct Edwards High School and the former Hubbard Motor Company building, both of which were purchased by a lawyer planning to turn one into a law office, Montgomery said.

An example of a needed youth movement in Edwards is Lauren Auttonberry, 29, who moved onto Magnolia Street with her husband, Wayne, in 2002.

&#8220My great-aunt grew up here and she was excited to see me move here,” she said. &#8220We’re fixing up the house we’re living in.”

Auttonberry admits the road back to being an active, vibrant town is a long one – an issue of survival, she said.

&#8220It’s not a growing community. It would take an investment of time and dedication. It could really be a great place if we can get people in here.”