Edith Oster

Edith Grace (Gordon) Oster
August, 5, 1906

Edith Oster, 101, finally made heaven's headline..

After more than a century of relative obscurity she burst into glory on Oct. 1, 2007.
Her final days were days of anxiety for her earthly family, but she was at peace, thanking God for the blessing of a long and eventful life.

She was born August 5, 1906 in Chico, CA to Curtis and Grace Gordon when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States. Contrary to what most people were doing at that time they moved eastward by train to western Nebraska near Harrison in 1909 when Edith was three. They moved again by horse and wagon to Custer, S.D. in 1918 where she graduated from Custer High School in 1925. After attending two years at Dakota Wesleyan University in Vermillion, S.D, she returned to the Black Hills area where she worked as a waitress at Blue Bell Lodge and in the laundry department at the Tuberculosis Sanitarium near Hot Springs, S.D.

In 1928, she cast her first vote for president, voting for Herbert Hoover and then voted in every succeeding presidential election to the present including 2004. On Nov. 11, 1935 she made the trip to a secluded mountain valley near Rapid City, SD now called the Stratosphere Bowl to witness the first launch of man by gondola and balloon into the stratosphere in what has been called "the place and time where the space age was born." Years later, at the age of 99, she fulfilled a 70 year dream of riding in a hot air balloon herself.

She came to the Gordon, Nebraska, area late in 1935 or early in 1936 to work in the home of Newton S. Gates and then became a cook at the Carson Ranch near Irwin where she met and on March 10, 1936 married a "good looking cowboy" named John Oster who "must have liked her cooking." Two sons were born, John Curtis in 1936 and Harold Lee in 1943.
For the next 12 years John worked on various sandhills ranches and the family learned to love the secluded life of the sandhills–no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no telephone, no paved roads, no nearby neighbors and obviously no television.. In 1948 they moved to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota north of Gordon. Also in 1948 they helped to plant and began a 60-year relationship to the Gordon Gospel Chapel on North Main Street.
After 14 years on the Reservation they moved into the town of Gordon in 1962 where John worked for the City Parks Department and Edith worked at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home.


Both remained active in the Gordon Gospel Chapel, Edith serving as secretary to the board and as Sunday School superintendent and teacher. John died in 1988.
Edith's love for the Gospel Chapel is evident in a poem entitled "The Dream" which she wrote on the occasion of the chapel's 50th anniversary in 1998 which includes these words:

"The seed of a dream in the mind of a man,
Is tiny, and weak, and slow,
For a dream is only a dream you know
Until somebody makes it grow.

***

The Chapel dream has grown
And we who are here now must know
That this dream must be nourished with loving care
And we must make it grow".

In1996, Edith celebrated her 90th birthday with a float trip on the Niobrara River near Valentine along with a large company of family and friends. Other notable birthdays included her 85th birthday in the Black Forrest of Germany, a horseback ride on her 96th birthday, a hot air baloon ride on her 99th birthday and a ride in an open-cockpit World War II trainer airplane on her 100th birthday.

In 1998, Edith moved to the Kansas City area to Olathe, KS to be closer to family. She attended the Challengers Sunday School Class at Olathe College Church of the Nazarene and lived with family and for brief times at the Good Samaritan Towers, the Parkview Manor, and Royal Terrace Nursing Home in Olathe and the Hillside Nursing Home in DeSoto, KS.
Over the years, especially during the more secluded sandhills years, Edith expressed herself in poetry and eventually became an award-winning poet, travelling as far as Reno, NV, and Orlando, FL., to attend poetry awards conventions. On moving from Nebraska to Kansas in 1998 she wrote what was perhaps her last poem which she called "Nebraska, Cradle of Dreams."
Nebraska, Cradle of Dreams,
Home of the pioneer,
Westerly wending
In search of the life
That God has intended,
Her crowning glory
The vast rolling Sandhills
Extensive and beautiful,
Cattleman's paradise,
Nebraska,
Cradle of Dreams,
My roots
And my branches.

In her final years she frequently regaled residents and staff of nursing homes and doctors's offices with her rendition of a humorous poem called simply "Oh Dear, Oh Dear This Hair of Mine." Until her final hours she exhibited an enduring sense of humor that delighted all who knew her.

She was preceded in death by three sisters and four brothers and is survived by her sons, John (Dee) and Harold (Harriet), three grandsons, John (Donna), Jeff (Kristi) , and Joel (Wendi); and six great grandchildren, John Dale, Caleb Wendell, Zakary Christian, Luke Cristopher, Gracie Kristiane, and Kathryn Joy.

The Penwell-Gable Funeral Home of Olathe in charge of Olathe arrangements. A memorial service will be held at Olathe College Church of the Nazarene at 11 a.m. Tuesday October 9, and a funeral service will be held at the Gordon Gospel Chapel in Gordon, NE on the afternon of Oct. 12 with burial in the Gordon Cemetery. The Chamberlain Funeral Home of Gordon is in charge of Nebraska arrangements. The family suggests memorials to the College Church J Train Ministry, or to the Edith Oster Educational Charitable Trust, c/o Security Savings Bank, 15100 Rosewood, Leawood, KS 66224.