- Date Of Birth: October 4, 1930
- Date Of Death: December 7, 2015
- State: Idaho
Erdeena Parsons, 85, passed away peacefully with her family by her side on Dec. 7th in Meridian.
“I was born in a German Settlement north of Bethune, Colorado, but since the doctor was from Stratton that is the listed place of my birth.
The year was 1930. My parents, Albert and Bertha Stolz, worked at farming during the
depression and dust bowl years in Eastern Colorado. My brother, Ivan, was born in 1934 and
shortly thereafter we left everything to move to Loveland, Colorado hoping my mother’s eczema would improve. We lived for a few years in Loveland and my Dad worked at whatever job he could find hoping all the while to get back to farming. Finally we rented a farm and my folks worked hard here in this “irrigated land”. I went to little one or two room rural schools as my folks moved to several different farms between Loveland and Ft. Collins.
My brother, Ivan, was 4 years younger than I and was the “bane of my existence” with his perpetual teasing. He’d disappear at “dishes time” when he was supposed to dry. He’d run around and knock at the door to make me answer it. One day I heard a knock, and I just yelled out, “Get in here and help me with the dishes!” No response except a nervous cough. It was the postman at the door.
We didn’t have electricity on the farm until the year I went away to college. We had an old out house and no running water but an old cistern with a pump outside. We milked cows the old fashioned way, and I was a good milker. My Mother said I almost disappeared under the cow and really went to work. Ivan fiddled around and sang and didn’t accomplish much milking. He was a great worker in the fields with horses at first and later with a tractor. Things changed rapidly when electricity was brought up our long lane. Milking machines replaced hands, and running water was installed in the house. My folks got one of the early TVs in 1948, and of course refrigeration was a big deal.
I graduated from the eighth grade at Mt. Hope School in a class of 2. Marian Gettman and I were the only graduates that year, so we decided to wear long formals. I remember my teacher took Mom and I shopping so I could get one–Marian wore one of her sister’s formals. We felt pretty elegant. The next year we both went to Loveland High. My country school education had taught me well because I did good high school work and liked school which inspired me to become a teacher. I graduated in 1948 and enrolled in Colorado State College of Education at Greeley (now called Northern Colorado University) with a scholarship. I majored in Elementary Education and graduated in 1952.
At the beginning of my senior year at college I met Bob Parsons, and we dated that year and both graduated in May 1952. I went to North Platte, Nebraska to teach school. Bob joined the Air Force.
1953. We went to San Antonio, Texas where Bob was stationed and had about a three month extended honeymoon.
Then the axe fell, and he was assigned to go to Tripoli, Africa. I went back to Loveland to stay with my folks.
Then, lo and behold, I found out I was pregnant just after Bob left for overseas. Larry was born in Loveland July 17, 1954, and Bob didn’t see him till he was about 8 months old. After Bob returned in the Spring of 1955 he was assigned to Washington, D.C., and we got an apartment there. I got pregnant again, and Patty was born in the Air Force hospital in Washington, D.C. on April 3, 1956.
Bob spent 4 years in the Air Force after which he decided to go to grad school at Colorado University at Boulder. We lived in a quonset hut student housing, and after about a year we decided we’d better get back to working cause G.I. Bill money made for pretty tight living. We registered with the Placement Bureau at our Alma Mater, C.S.C.E. at Greeley, and they arranged for us to be interviewed by the Superintendent of Santa Paula, California schools. We drove to Denver in a blinding snowstorm to meet Mr. Denlay at the Brown Palace Hotel for this interview. He showed us pictures of people walking on the streets of Santa Paula in shorts all year around. We were sold!
We traveled to California in 1957 with our little family of two kids and all our worldly possessions in a little 4′ by 6′ trailer and stayed there to teach for 28 years. I taught in the same school all that time and got the second generation children. I taught mostly first grade (sometimes second or third) with a large Mexican and Mexican-American enrollment–some directly from Mexico that didn’t understand English.
We retired in 1985 and returned to Loveland to buy my parents’ farm. We lived on the farm about 2 years, and then moved in to town.”
She was loved greatly and will be missed by many. She was preceded in death by her mother Bertha, father Albert and brother Ivan. She leaves her loving husband of 62 years Bob, her son Larry and wife Patty, daughter Patty and husband Steve Adams, grandchildren Amanda, Jenny, & Laura Parsons and Tony, Christian, Molly & Annick Adams as well as 2 great-grandchildren.
