Edna F Edwards

Edna Edwards, age 87, Clark, formerly of the Crocker/Bradley area, died early Wednesday morning, October 28, 2009 in a Clark care center. She was the widow of Alton Edwards. Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 2PM in the Crocker Lutheran Church at Crocker, South Dakota with Minister Marion Grimes officiating. Music will be presented by Marvine Obermeier as organist with the congregation singing "I Love to Tell the Story". Wendy Christman will sing "The Old Rugged Cross" and "How Great Thou Art". The casketbearers will be Clinton and Mike Matthews, Dick Hilmoe, Dave Finstad, Lester Fryett and Cliff Hartman. Burial will follow in the Our Saviors Lutheran Cemetery - East, near Lily, SD. Visitation will be held on Sunday from 4-6 PM at the Furness Funeral Home in Clark and 1 hour preceding services at the Church in Crocker on Monday. She was born on a farm near Dell Rapids, SD, on April 15, 1922, the daughter of Ole and Johanna (Brende) Warwick. Edna was baptized in the Lutheran faith in the Jasper Evangelical Lutheran Church near Jasper, MN. In 1925 she moved with her family to a farm west of Crocker, SD. In 1930 the family moved to a farm near Bradley where she attended high school graduating in 1940. She was confirmed in the Crocker Lutheran Church. On March 10, 1942 she was united in marriage to Alton Edwards at Lily. They farmed near Bradley, Clark and Crocker until purchasing a farm three miles north of Bradley in 1946. They farmed until retiring in 1980. They lived on the farm until moving into the Country View Living Center at Florence in July of 2000. Alton died on September 15, 2000. She continued living in Florence until moving into the Golden Living Center at Clark in May of 2008. Her Church life was very important to her, they were members of the Our Saviors Lutheran Church near Lily where she had served as the President of the Womens Missionary Federation and as Sunday School Superintendent. The church closed in 1959 and they transferred their membership to the St. Johns Lutheran Church at Bradley where she served as the President of the American Lutheran Church Women. Later they joined the Crocker Lutheran Church and she also served as the President of the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as well as holding various other offices in the church and other womens organizations. Besides her Church life, Edna also enjoyed times of visiting friends and family, never missing sending a card on a birthday or anniversary. They were the first ones at a home of a friend if a death had occurred to support them. She enjoyed learning to play the piano at a later age in life and also liked to write poetry as shown by the one on the back of this folder, written after her sister Jeanette had died. Following their retirement, they spent countless hours, always together, going to threshing bees, traveling, going to Medora, ND and fishing- they thoroughly enjoyed their time together. She will long be remembered for always having food at their home, you never left hungry. Another memory of her will be her smile while she was driving their Ford 8N tractor and when she was going shopping. Grateful for having shared her life is her sister, Mildred (Clifford) Bjerke of Moorhead, MN and many nieces and nephews and a host of friends. Preceding her in death were her parents, husband and siblings, Jens & Joseph Warwick, Jeanette Packard, Olga Bjerke, Inga Packard and Margaret Hilmoe. Funeral arrangements are announced by the Furness Funeral Home of Clark where there is an on-line registry at www.furnessfuneralhome.com