Olivia Edwards was a Richmond Heights pharmacist and community activist. Born in Fort Pierce, Florida, on January 12, 1931, she was the oldest of seven children. While she was still small, her family moved to South Miami.

She attended South Miami Elementary School and graduated as class salutatorian of Coconut Grove’s Carver High School in 1948.

Her strong desire to help others, coupled with her parent’s urging to pursue a medical career, led her to study pharmacy. She graduated from Xavier University’s College of Pharmacy in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1952. After graduating she became a registered pharmacist certified by the Florida State Board of Pharmacy.

In 1956 she and her husband, Clarence Edwards, opened Richmond Heights Drugs on the street then known as Lincoln Boulevard (after her death the street was renamed in her honor). Richmond Heights was one of the first black planned communities in Dade County.

Unlike government project complexes like Liberty Square, Richmond Heights was built by a private firm, Richmond Development, for black was veterans in 1951. Richmond Heights was developed as a beautiful middle class community of black men and women “who wanted homes and [were] willing to work hard for them. “

The white land developer, Captain Frank Martin, saw the community as a challenge to black residents and other developers in South Florida. For black residents the challenge was to “justify their home ownership”.  To other developers, Martin’s challenge was to provide well-built houses without skimping on land, materials or labor. The planned community included special provisions for school, parks, churches, a recreation center and a shopping center.

The original shopping center was planned as a temporary facility with three essential services, a post office, a grocery store and a drug and a sundries store. However, the planned community reserved two blocks for a modern shopping center. Today the Richmond Heights shopping center, commonly known as “the front,” is Olivia Edwards Boulevard. Richmond Heights Drugs is one of eleven stores on “the front.”

Edwards provided their first jobs to generations of Richmond Heights youths including Archie Pinder, H.T. Smith, Esq., and Harry Jones. She donated space for meetings of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and for a counseling center sponsored by a church. She and her husband registered blacks to vote and she was noted for feeding the homeless in Richmond heights.