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DONNA GAYLE EDMONDSON
Donna Gayle Edmondson was born May 13, 1935 in Abesville, Missouri to Robert and Mildred (Baugh) Wright and went to be with her Lord on February 28, 2023 in Mercy Hospital, Springfield, Missouri. She was preceded in death by her husband, Rev. Max Edmondson, her parents, and only sibling, Jo Caroleen West.
She graduated high school in Galena, Missouri, where she met her future husband. At the age of seventeen they married on August 20, 1952. They would have celebrated their sixty-ninth wedding anniversary the year of his death.
Earlier in life she was a seamstress – first at the Crane Garment Factory and then at Calvert’s Manufacturing in Springfield. This allowed her to support her family while her husband attended seminary in Texas. Once Max graduated from seminary, she accompanied him to various churches and congregations throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. And while committed to the obligations of a preacher’s wife, she raised two children and maintained a home.
She was a woman of balance - stern but kind, patient yet direct, a disciplinarian and fun-loving. Blessed with a keen mind and sharp wit, she chose her words wisely (and timely), and she used those gifts to engage with her children, grandchildren, and others in an effort to make them think and be observant. She spoke with her physicality. With piercing blue eyes, working in collusion with black brows and a squint, she could corral and direct a room. At an Easter service at Roaring River, with simply pursed lips and squinted eyes she once chastised her husband and a grandson for looking at a stringer of fish rather than paying attention to the sermon of the resurrection.
She believed in the benefits and sanctity of hard work. She encouraged, rather prodded, her family to have a good work ethic, and when seeing work to be done and somebody standing about, she often quipped, “Someone has to do it, so it might as well be you.”
She was fond of going to a movie theater but rarely went. She enjoyed walking for exercise, reading mystery and western novels, working various types of puzzles, and figuring out who-done-it on Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote. She preferred solid silence but welcomed the sound of a hard wind. She found warmth in a cold, grey, rainy day. She was a good cook and did so daily, but she preferred cheeseburgers (especially McDonald’s). Fishing was something she encouraged, but later in life she wouldn’t clean nor cook the catch. She was respected and loved by all who knew her. And these are just a few of the reasons she will be missed.
Survivors include her daughter, Donna Beard (husband Dana); son, Curtis Edmondson (wife Cindy); four grandchildren, Seth Wilson, Jed Wilson (wife Kristen), Caleb Edmondson (wife Adrienne), Celia Williams (husband, Nathan); eight great grandchildren, Hailey, Emily, Molly, Elliott, Oliver, John Hardy, Wyatt, and Leah.
Funeral Services will be held Monday, March 6, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. in the Crane First Baptist Church at Crane, Missouri with burial in the Crane First Baptist Church Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. until service time at 11:00 a.m. Arrangements are under the care of Westrip Funeral Home, Crane, Missouri.
Donna Gayle Edmondson was born May 13, 1935 in Abesville, Missouri to Robert and Mildred (Baugh) Wright and went to be with her Lord on February 28, 2023 in Mercy Hospital, Springfield, Missouri. She was preceded in death by her husband, Rev. Max Edmondson, her parents, and only sibling, Jo Caroleen West.
She graduated high school in Galena, Missouri, where she met her future husband. At the age of seventeen they married on August 20, 1952. They would have celebrated their sixty-ninth wedding anniversary the year of his death.
Earlier in life she was a seamstress – first at the Crane Garment Factory and then at Calvert’s Manufacturing in Springfield. This allowed her to support her family while her husband attended seminary in Texas. Once Max graduated from seminary, she accompanied him to various churches and congregations throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. And while committed to the obligations of a preacher’s wife, she raised two children and maintained a home.
She was a woman of balance - stern but kind, patient yet direct, a disciplinarian and fun-loving. Blessed with a keen mind and sharp wit, she chose her words wisely (and timely), and she used those gifts to engage with her children, grandchildren, and others in an effort to make them think and be observant. She spoke with her physicality. With piercing blue eyes, working in collusion with black brows and a squint, she could corral and direct a room. At an Easter service at Roaring River, with simply pursed lips and squinted eyes she once chastised her husband and a grandson for looking at a stringer of fish rather than paying attention to the sermon of the resurrection.
She believed in the benefits and sanctity of hard work. She encouraged, rather prodded, her family to have a good work ethic, and when seeing work to be done and somebody standing about, she often quipped, “Someone has to do it, so it might as well be you.”
She was fond of going to a movie theater but rarely went. She enjoyed walking for exercise, reading mystery and western novels, working various types of puzzles, and figuring out who-done-it on Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote. She preferred solid silence but welcomed the sound of a hard wind. She found warmth in a cold, grey, rainy day. She was a good cook and did so daily, but she preferred cheeseburgers (especially McDonald’s). Fishing was something she encouraged, but later in life she wouldn’t clean nor cook the catch. She was respected and loved by all who knew her. And these are just a few of the reasons she will be missed.
Survivors include her daughter, Donna Beard (husband Dana); son, Curtis Edmondson (wife Cindy); four grandchildren, Seth Wilson, Jed Wilson (wife Kristen), Caleb Edmondson (wife Adrienne), Celia Williams (husband, Nathan); eight great grandchildren, Hailey, Emily, Molly, Elliott, Oliver, John Hardy, Wyatt, and Leah.
Funeral Services will be held Monday, March 6, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. in the Crane First Baptist Church at Crane, Missouri with burial in the Crane First Baptist Church Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. until service time at 11:00 a.m. Arrangements are under the care of Westrip Funeral Home, Crane, Missouri.
