Ralph Armstrong EDIE

EDIE, BLICKSTEAD, HILL, WORK, PETERSEN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/1/2009 at 06:48:33

The Brookings Register, Brookings, South Dakota
June 8th, 2009

Ralph A. Edie - Sioux Falls
December 19, 1919 - May 22, 2009

Ralph A. Edie, 89, died Friday, May 22, 2009, at the home of his daughter, Coral Edie Blickstead in Sioux Falls, where he had resided along with his wife, Juanita since 2002. Funeral services are at 3 p.m Saturday at First Presbyterian Church in Brookings.

Ralph Armstrong Edie was born Dec. 19, 1919, at Khartoum, Sudan, Africa, to Raymond L. and Amy M. (Armstrong) Edie, missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church. He came to the United States in 1923 with his parents and younger sister, Eleanor. He attended grade school in Pennsylvania and Arizona and graduated from high school at Fort Morgan, Colo., in 1938. He received a bachelor of arts from Sterling College in Sterling, Kan., in 1942. He married Juanita Coral Hill in Ezel, Kent., on Dec. 21, 1943. He receive a divinity degree from Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary in 1945 and was ordained to the ministry on March 1, 1945.

Following his first pastorate at Goldfield, Iowa, he served United Presbyterian Churches in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Coin, Iowa, Stanwood, Iowa; and Greenview, Ill. In 1963 he sought a different career path and in 1965 he was hired by the U.S. government to learn computer science, then in its infancy. He eventually became a computer systems analyst for the U.S. Army in a civilian capacity, serving for 20 years and retiring in 1985. Ralph and Jaunita made their home in Mount Clemens, Mich., from 1965 to 2002, where they were members of First Presbyterian Church and he sang in the choir, served as an elder and as church treasurer. Always avid campers, the couple traveled with their Award trailer, spending summers in Imp Lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and winters at Lady Bird Park in Fredericksburg, Texas, where they enjoyed the company of Richard and Esther Edie and Dee and Lois Watson of Brookings. He loved playing chess and Skip-Bo, visiting his daughters and exploring the great outdoors.

He is survived by his wife, Jaunita Edie of Sioux Falls; three children, Coral Blickstead of Sioux Falls, Karen Edie of Mount Clemens, Mich., and Laura Edie of Las Vegas; a sister, Eleanor Edie Work of Englewood, Ohio and a brother, Richard W. Edie of Brookings. He was preceded in death by his youngest sister, Evelyn Edie Petersen.