Myrtle Lou (Ashford) Edmond

Myrtle Lou Edmond, of Antlers, passed away on March 9, 2021 in Paris, Texas. She was born on June 20, 1928 to Sam. J. Ashford and Ethel (Sexton) Ashford. After graduating from Antlers High School, she began her teaching career at the age of seventeen with a special “wartime” exception. She taught in a two-room school at Greenwood, where the students included some cousins and a younger sister, who were required to call her “Miss Ashford” while on the school grounds. Later, she graduated from Southeastern State College in Durant, and Oklahoma City University.

Myrtle married Kenneth Edmond on January 15, 1949 in Paris, Texas. While he finished a degree at OSU, she taught in another two-room school in Cottonwood, near Stillwater. Her reunions with the “Cottonwood kids” from her time there were an annual highlight of her last decade or so.

She continued as a lifelong educator and counselor, employed by Oklahoma City Schools for 28 years as a first- grade teacher, then a counselor. After Kenneth retired, they moved to a family property near Rattan, but retirement didn’t suit her, so she went back to work as a Psychological Assistant for the Department of Corrections for seven years. She continued working with students after retirement, especially at Rattan, where she enjoyed several years working on the award-winning AT6 monument project.
Myrtle was deeply interested in history and genealogy, and was an active volunteer with the Pushmataha County Historical Society, Delta Kappa Gamma, Oklahoma Retired Educators Association, and the Pushmataha Hospital Auxiliary. She was also a longtime member of the Presbyterian Church.

Myrtle is preceded in death by her husband: Kenneth Edmond; parents: Sam and Ethel Ashford; brothers: Walter Ashford and Logan Ashford; and sisters: Christine (Ashford)) Ives and Lenora (Ashford) Bell.

She is survived by her children: Lorraine Edmond and husband Tom Bowden of Lopez Island, Washington and Keith Edmond and wife Beverly Cox of Edmond, Oklahoma, and her sister Sammie Moser (Wesley) of Choctaw, as well as an abundance of nephews and nieces, friends who are family, and a special group of people who call her Grandma Myrtle.

Myrtle made instant friends everywhere she went, and if you ever picked her up at the airport, you’d likely see her getting a huge goodbye hug from someone she’d sat by for the past three hours. And if you heard her say “What’s your favorite color?” you would know that person was going to be receiving one of Myrtle’s famous crocheted “lap robes” in the colors of their choice. She kept a running tally, and went over 300 sometime in 2020. She was known as the lady “with more yarn than Walmart,” a title she enjoyed and tried to live up to.

In lieu of flowers, donations to one of the following-- Goodland Academy, Pushmataha County Historical Society, Pushmataha Hospital Auxiliary, or your favorite charity in her memory would be appreciated.

Services for Myrtle will be held at the Serenity Funeral Service Chapel on Monday, March 15, 2021 at 10AM with interment following at Oddfellows Cemetery. There will be viewing on Sunday, March 14, 2021 from 2-4PM.

Services to be provided by Serenity Funeral Service of Antlers, Oklahoma.

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