I was able to restore the visibility of the edit pencil by editing the vendors.ascx page.  In the grid control, there is a Visible="<%#  CanEdit() %>" that hides the pencil if it doesn't have the rights assigned.  I removed this segment of code in the HTML and it worked fine.

The source code has:

   protected bool CanEdit()
        {
            return PortalSecurity.IsInRole(PortalSettings.AdministratorRoleName);
        }

It appears to allow editing only if the person has Administrator rights.  This is ok if every site was managed by an admin.  In truth, many sites have content editors who do not have full administrator rights to add/change/delete pages, modules, etc.

Hoever, this temporary 'fix' will display the pencil no matter if the person viewing the page has rights to edit the module.  However, if they click on a pencil, they will get a message telling them they don't have rights to edit.  Of course, the page should be viewable only to those editors or vendors who have rights.