Edith Mae Barnes

Edith Mae was born near Durant, Oklahoma, the fourth child of Owen and Edith Hall Scarborough and the first to survive. With her father’s employment selling road machinery, her family moved frequently throughout Texas to Rankin, San Angelo, Wichita Falls, Mineral Wells, Lubbock, and finally to Weatherford, where she finished high school in 1937. She then moved from the dustbowl to Los Angeles using Travelers Aid. Edith found work as a “mother’s helper” in Beverly Hills which enabled her to attend Pepperdine College then UCLA. She graduated in the first February class of 1943, due to World War II conditions. She began her teaching career in a one-room school at Delta, California, north of Redding. She taught fourth grade in Corning, Santa Rosa, and finally Davis, where she served as principal of East Davis Elementary. For continuing education credit, she attended Audubon camp in the summer of 1958 becoming friends with the instructor and his wife. Seeing sister-in-law potential, they invited her to dinner to meet Bill Barnes. Bill and Edith married June 12, 1959 to enjoy 52 contented years. In 1963 they moved from Minden, Nevada, to Boise. Edith’s interests were in clothing design, baking and teaching. She led Women’s Bible studies, Bible Study Fellowship, Child Evangelism Good News clubs and taught English as a second language to refugees. She volunteered for decades with the Elks Rehabilitation Hospital and the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society. Bill and Edith were long-time members of Eldorado Church of Christ where she was known for her recipes at church potlucks. Edith was preceded in death by her husband, Bill, and her brother, Owen. She is survived by her daughter Laurel (Sherman Wong); grandsons Jeff and Peter. Private interment at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. Favorite Bible Verse, chosen as a senior in high school: James 1:17 KJV “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Advice from her 103rd birthday: “Continually be thankful, continually desire God’s will, continually accept what God has for you.”

Tributes

Edith Mae Barnes

October 13, 1920 - June 25, 2024