Edith Baird Duncanville, Texas

Edith “Edie” Ester Carns-Clifton-Baird was born to Fanny Sanders-Carns and George Carns on October 20, 1915. She was the youngest sister of seven other siblings. She grew up on the family farm near Murray, Iowa. Her grandmother Martha Sanders lived down the road, giving Edie a place to go when things didn’t go her way at home.

She met George Emert Clifton, the son of a local farmer, and they married on Jan. 25, 1934. They had three children; George Jr. (Jack), Beverley, and Barbara. Her grandchildren are Nancy, Stuart, Cynthia, and Malea Clifton; Anita, Janice, and Brenda Grandfield; and Lonny, Roy, Sherri, and Carey Songer. Emert Clifton and her second husband George Baird preceded her in death as did her daughter Beverley Grandfield, granddaughter Nancy Clifton, and grandson-in-law Terry Loy. She has 24 great grandchildren and 16 great great grandchildren.

She was a tremendously disciplined woman. She loved pretty clothes and shoes, was extremely proud of the fact that she didn’t take “any pills.” Our family can take pride in her and her ancestry, we are descendant of a signor of “The Mayflower Compact.”

Edie was a woman that knew all about hard work. She got her first washing machine in 1940 or 1941 two or three years after her children were out of (cloth) diapers. She hauled water a quarter of a mile for all the household needs; which required putting several 10 gallon milk cans in the car or in the horse drawn wagon every other day, pumping 30 or 40 gallons of water to fill the can, unloading the can when back at the house. These cans would weigh upwards of 100 pounds each. She tended a kitchen garden, a potato patch and many, many rows of sweet corn. In doing so was able to harvest enough vegetables for summer meals and for canning enough food for the long, long winter. She had no refrigerator nor freezer so everything was packed in “Mason jars,” and sealed by processing them in boiling water for 2 or 3 hours. A very hot job on an equally hot summer day. All vegetables and meat were canned. She was not much different than all the other depression and war time women, but she was a gentle mother, a hard task master when it came to school work and social events, and strong help mate to a young farmer.

The ten years following the war brought some changes except for the long hours of hard work. Rural Iowa was electrified by the late 1940s. It was 1956 before she had the luxuries of hot and cold running water and complete indoor plumbing, but the roads were still unpaved. Then in 1957 after all the children had married and started on their way Edie and Emert made a really big change. They sold their farm and everything related to farming and moved to San Diego, California. For the next 23 years Edie cared for a hard working husband. Emert passed away in 1980 leaving Edie with very few assets other than for a willingness to work hard. The one thing she really knew how to do was to take care of people. That was just what she did for the next 25 years. By 2009 her long years of hard work had taken its toll. She had ever increasing needs related to the level of dementia. By September 2010 she left California and moved into a nursing home in Duncanville, TX where she passed away on January 19, 2015 at the age of 99 years, 2 months, and 30 days.

Graveside services and interment will be 11:00AM Saturday, May 23, 2015, in the Lorimor Cementery, Lorimor, Iowa.

Following the interment services the ladies of the Lorimor Methodist Church will provide the attendees with a light lunch.