Esther Alice Edelen passed away September 22, 2023, after a long and adventurous life.
Esther was born January 16, 1924 to Frank and Ethel McGahey in Victor Iowa. Esther was the third of four daughters of a family that loved fishing and camping. Graduating high school at 17 her ambition was to be an airline stewardess which required an RN nursing degree at the time.
At 18 she entered the State University of Iowa School of Nursing in 1942 and in May of ’43 she applied for and was admitted into the Army Cadet Nursing program. WW II ended prior to her commissioning, and she graduated as an RN from the University in June of 1946.
She married Robert J. Edelen in August of ’46 and moved to Ames, Iowa, where he was in college and she worked as a nurse. In the summer of 1948, they bought an old Hudson and headed to Salmon, Idaho where they manned a USPS lookout for two summers. Supplies were air dropped and visitors rare.
A sheepherder would stop once or twice a season who would invite them to his camp for dinner. The host did not believe pies should be cut and always made three. Shortly after the Mann Gulch fire on the Helena NF the district fire officer hiked in to make sure they knew what to do if a fire developed near the lookout. In those days the lookout was expected to smoke chase nearby starts.
Robert worked as a hired man on a few farms before moving the family to Indianola, Iowa where they raised their two sons, Russell and Nick on a small farm. Esther worked as the school nurse in the Simpson College infirmary and Robert worked for Firestone Tire and Rubber in Des Moines until his death in 1969.
Summers were emphasized by the annual vacations, which grew as the vacation time accrued from local camping trips to odysseys around Lake Superior, to Washington DC and all of the historic sites along the way (a common theme), into Arkansas and to Idaho to revisit their lookout on Jureano Mtn, which was still manned at the time.
While working at the college, and many years after, nurses were expected to wear “whites”. The family lived on a dirt road that was a mess when it rained or snowed as the county did not maintain it in the winter. They had an old surplus jeep that they drove to the highway where they parked the car. It was a site for the truckers to see starched white coming out of a mud-soaked jeep. The county finally graveled the road, and the jeep was retired.
Upon leaving Simpson College, Esther worked at the local nursing home. After Robert died and the boys graduated she took a job at a hospital in Kirksville, MO for a couple of years. She then hitched on to her thirteen-foot camp trailer and headed for a job in Cody, WY, where she lived in the trailer while working and exploring Wyoming. She returned to Iowa where she worked again in nursing homes before going to Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines where she retired in 1992.
Retirement found her and her camper most anywhere in the mid-west or on the road to Colorado or north Idaho to visit her sons. Other road trips included back to Maryland and Ohio to chase genealogy, Florida, Grand Canyon, Phoenix, and southern California to visit relatives there. Group tours were also in the mix with trips to Hawaii and two trips to Alaska. When asked about foreign travel she said there was too much to explore here.
She mowed her own yard long after the neighbors thought she should and shoveled her own sidewalk into her 90’s. In 2020, at 96, she moved to Deer Lodge, MT to be closer to her sons, Russell at Deer Lodge and Nick at Bigfork.
She was a resident at Renaissance Senior Care and would tell many stories. Let’s just say “mostly true” but it was a life well lived.
Esther passed peacefully September 22, 2023 with a son and granddaughter present, just 4 months shy of her 100th birthday, for her last trip to reunite with Robert, her parents and her three sisters, Marie Atkins of Hyattsville, MD, Helen Pratt of Algona IA, and Ruth Iverson of Indianola, IA.
She is survived by her sons Russell (Julie) Edelen of Deer Lodge and Nick Edelen of Bigfork MT; grandchildren, Jennifer Stone and Erin Edelen of Deer Lodge and Charles Edelen of Butte; great-grandchildren, Sydney Reich, Moriah Reich, Taylor Stone, Makayla Stone, and Braydon Stone; great-great-grandson Desmond Stone; nieces and nephews and their descendants.
Esther will be transported to Brooklyn, IA, to be laid to rest next to Robert.
The family would like to thank Renaissance Senior Care, Hospice, and the Deer Lodge Medical Center (where she always replied “Disgustingly healthy” when ask how she was feeling) for their attention and care. The family suggests memorial donations to a local or familiar nursing school or a cause of choice.
Please visit below to leave a condolence or share a memory of Esther.
Axelson Funeral & Cremations is privileged to care for Esther and her family.
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