Elsie Marie Rader

Elsie Marie Rader was born in Burlington, Washington on January 31, 1921 and was promoted to glory on February 4, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was predeceased by her husband of 59 years, Harold Pearce Rader, in May 2009.

Elsie was the oldest of five, born to George and Ruth Ovenell and was raised in the Skagit Valley of Washington State. She remembered putting cardboard in her holey shoes during the Great Depression and being grateful that her father was a grocer, so the family had food during those years. She graduated from Burlington-Edison high school and went on to study Nutrition and Home Economics Education at the University of Washington. After graduation, she taught Home Economics at high schools in Langley and Natchez, WA.

Elsie and her sister Betty spent a summer in Fairbanks, Alaska just as World War II ended. It was there that she met Harold who was then a Navy Aviation Machinist’s Mate 2C. He was entertaining troops with his piano abilities at the local USO and sometime later he and his friend were invited to try some fresh blueberry pie with the two Ovenell girls. Elsie married Harold July 2, 1949.

While Harold earned his civil engineering degree at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Elsie taught at Stephens College. Harold’s engineering profession took him to Oregon and Colorado before they eventually settled in Burlington, Washington where Harold ran a civil engineering and land surveying business while Elsie was a busy mom at home with their four children.

When the children graduated from college, Harold and Elsie moved to Warrensburg, Missouri for a time. They then returned to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Bellingham, Washington. During this time Elsie spent time caring for her aging parents. They then moved to Rolla, Missouri for a few years before they moved to the Pikes Peak area, living first in Woodland Park and then in Colorado Springs.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Donna and Bob Bayne of Cookeville, Tennessee; her son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Donna Rader of Colorado Springs, Colorado; her son and daughter-in-law, Stan and Barbara Rader of Monument, CO; and her daughter, Bonnie Rader of Cookeville, Tennessee. Elsie and Harold were also blessed with nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, February 11, 2016 at Forestgate Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Burial will be at 10:00 AM on February 24, 2016 in the Rader Lutheran Cemetery in Rader, Missouri.