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Service held for Edith Catlett

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Edith was born on December 30, 1933 in Double Horn, a small community in Burnet County in the central Texas Hill Country. She was delivered at home, with her own grandmother acting as midwife. She passed from this life on October 28, 2019.  

Edith was the second child and oldest daughter of Willie and Maudie Whitehead Spiekermann. She began school in Double Horn, later transferring to the Burnet schools when her parents bought a farm outside the town of Burnet while Edith was still in elementary school. She learned to cook on a wood burning stove and was helping her mother prepare meals from an early age. Edith played volleyball and participated in the school orchestra while at Burnet High School. She graduated in 1951 and began secretarial school at Nixon-Clay Commercial College in Austin, Texas that same year. Edith worked as a live-in cook and housekeeper for a family in Austin while she was pursuing her studies at Nixon-Clay.

In 1952, Edith went to work for the Texas Well Log Service in Austin. That same year, at a dance held in Burnet, she met a young Air Force staff sergeant from Virginia, Jack Coleman. They fell in love and married in July 1952. Soon after their marriage, Jack was assigned to the air base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While living there, Jack and Edith welcomed their first child, a daughter, Carolyn, in 1954. Later, while Jack was on temporary duty to Greenland, Edith moved back to Burnet and a second child was born, son Jimmy in 1955. The little family next moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 where a second son was born, Tad. After several more moves, Jack and Edith, with three children in tow, were assigned to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Texas. Edith was pleased, as she would now be near her family in Burnet once again. They were living in base housing, right across the street from the hospital, which Edith declared was a good thing, as hardly a month went past, that she was not having to take one of her accident-prone children across the street for some kind of medical service.

While at Bergstrom, another daughter, Susan was born in 1961. All went well for a few years as the three oldest children began school, and Edith went to work for the base credit union. However, the family was not destined to stay together, and Edith and Jack divorced in 1966, Jack taking their two sons and Edith taking their daughters. After the divorce, Edith continued at her job at the credit union, and while working there, she caught the eye of a staff sergeant from Oklahoma, Don Catlett. After a short courtship, Don and Edith were married in October 1967. Edith welcomed Don’s two children from a previous marriage, Bobbye and Doug into the family whenever they came to visit, and treated them as her own. A little over two years after their marriage, Edith’s last child, daughter Rita was born in 1970. In 1971 Don was assigned to an air base in England, so he and Edith and their three girls all went overseas. Edith worked there for the base credit union for a couple of years before taking an administrative job at the secure radar base just offshore, riding a ferry to and from work each day. In 1974, the family moved back stateside to Don’s native Oklahoma where he retired from the military. Edith took a job at First Family Credit Union in Henryetta, where she remained until she retired.  

Edith was a great cook and loved to garden. As a child, she first learned to sew on a treadle machine, and later using a modern sewing machine, made quite a few of her own clothes in addition to making many of her children’s outfits, including daughter, Susan’s wedding dress.  

Edith took great pride in her five adult children, but she was especially proud of her six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She would attend as many of their events as possible, be it graduation or scout ceremonies, and every kind of sporting event imaginable.  

Edith was the best mother and grandmother anyone could ever hope for. She will be greatly missed.

Edith is preceded in death by her parents, two husbands, and stepson, Doug. She is survived by her brothers, Ernest Spiekermann and wife, Peggy; Ervin Spiekermann and wife, Brenda. Her sisters, Esther Warden and husband A.W., and Earline Zimmerman.

Edith is survived by her children, Carolyn Gulledge and husband, Ken; Jimmy Coleman, Tad Coleman, Susan Morris and husband, Jimmy, and Rita Posey and husband, Bo Posey. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Kevin Gulledge and Jessica Corey, Derek Gulledge, Sarah and Jeremiah Abel, Ashley Morris, Lexxi Posey, and Dalton Posey, and her great-grandchildren, Kade, Macee, and Oliver; step-daughter, Bobbye Weaver; grandchildren Jamie Foshee and Susann Foshee, along with Susann’s four children, Edith’s great-grandchildren; numerous nephews and nieces, and a host of friends.