Jermaine Edwards will have his student loans paid by Tom Joyner. (Photos: Change.org, Getty)
Radio personality Tom Joyner (R) presents Song of the Year Award to Tyrese Gibson during the Soul Train Awards 2012 at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on November 8, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. . (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for Centric)
Radio personalities Sybil Wilkes, Tom Joyner, and J. Anthony Brown of the Tom Joyner Morning Show speak onstage during the Soul Train Awards 2012 at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on November 8, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. . (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for Centric)
Tom Joyner attends the Soul Train Awards 2011 at The Fox Theatre on November 17, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
Tom Joyner presents during the 2011 Soul Train Awards at The Fox Theatre on November 17, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
Actress Holly Robinson Peete (L) and radio personality Tom Joyner present the Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Theatrical or Television) award onstage during the 39th NAACP Image Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on February 14, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images)
Fredricka Whitfield (CNN) and Tom Joyner (Radio) attend the 17th Annual Trumpet Awards at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on January 25, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
From Madame Noire Business:
Yesterday, we reported on the tragic story of Ella Edwards, the grieving 61-year-old mom who started a Change.org petition to have her deceased son Jermaine’s $10,800 student loan forgiven. Today, we have a great update to this story: Tom Joyner has pledged to pay the loan on Edwards’ behalf. (Thanks again to our Facebook friend EarthyGirls Trapp for helping us keep an eye on this story.)
Edwards appeared this morning on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” telling listeners about her situation. (A transcript of the show is available on BlackAmericaWeb.com.) Edwards said her son died at the age of 24 of what has been deemed natural causes. There had been a life insurance policy (opened in 1986), but he died on March 9, 2009, six days after the final payment on her policy. So the insurance company refused to pay, she said.
Edwards has been paying the debt, but occasionally, the payment is late. She will call the loan administrators — “The National Co-League Trust First Marblehead out of Boston, Massachusetts,” she said – to give them advanced warning, but they still call to collect.
Read the rest of this story on Madame Noire Business.
