Emma "Trudie" Gertrude Eichelberger

Trudie was born during a blizzard in Blakesburg, Iowa in 1924. The doctor could not make it so her own father delivered her. Together, her mom and dad wrapped her and put her in a flannel brick lined shoebox and put that close to the pot belly stove in the kitchen - what an entrance she made…

Mom learned her A B Cs and how to sing from her father as she traveled with him on his revival circuit. He was a Southern Baptist minister. Once she could sing, she was always standing on a chair and singing with her daddy the songs of Jesus.

At age 17, the world came to war - she taught school in a rural school house with K-8th grade. What an experience that was. The next year she packed her bags and moved to her Aunt May’s house in Kansas City and got a job at Kansas City Life. A cousin of my father noticed her red hair and told my father about her - they had a blind date and history began. He was a pilot/bombardier/navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps and together they criss crossed across the nation, then off to Guam and then Japan - all of this before, during and after WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

At Kansas City Life she got to put data on punch cards - the beginnings of computers - and fell in love with data - her last job was gathering data at the age of 82...

They settled in Missouri to raise 2 twin girls and a son. She was an industrious and fair mother to all of her children. Providing the best hands on experiences she could - when we kids got out of hand or it was a rainy day, she lined us up, put on John Phillips Souza music and we marched all around the house. All of us could march before we could walk.

Trudie’s most precious achievement has been leading her children to the Lord in salvation - regardless of mistakes made before or after. She is a shining example of just how Jesus doles out this grace and mercy thing - when we had been disciplined, she always gave us a kiss and a hug and told us the slate was wiped clean - to get this concept across to us, she washed our chalk boards and said - that is how Jesus does it. She always had an example to give. Those examples have been a part of her life as long as she had breath.

Mom always had a stray dog or cat and even a butterfly in the house. Didn’t matter if they were animal or people, lots of strays came for a day, a week or a lifetime…We have many brothers and sisters because of this. Again a good example of what Jesus talked about in Matthew 22: 37-40. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. This is what Trudie’s life was about - the whole 90 years of it…