Mable Clare Burkett Zedler

July 18, 1927 – August 11, 2015

On Tuesday, August 11, our sweet mother Mable Zedler was reunited with Ferd, her beloved husband of 60 years, and precious daughter Bonnie, in the presence of our Savior, King, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Her last few months were a heartbreaking trial for her and those of us who love her so much, but we can now rejoice through our tears, knowing that a beautiful Homecoming Celebration awaited her in glory, where there is no more pain or sickness or sorrow.

Mable was born at home in San Antonio on July 18, 1927, and was the first of three daughters born to Francis Marion Burkett and Mable Clare (Owen) Burkett. Mable graduated from Edgewood High School in 1944, and afterward worked a couple of years at Lackland Air Force Base as a clerk and maintained contact with several of those friends and coworkers throughout the years. She and Ferd married after the war in 1946 at Lakeview Baptist Church and together raised four daughters and two sons.

First and foremost was Mable’s faith in Jesus, a belief that began in the cradle by her godly mother, and was strengthened with solid Bible teaching by her beloved pastor Grover Lee at Lakeview Baptist, where she accepted Christ at the age of 9 [“because I realized that I was a sinner,” she wrote in a “Grandmother’s Memories” book]. From the time Mable was an older teen at Lakeview and later into her years at Bellaire and Lackland Baptist churches, she taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School for elementary-age children. As an older adult at Calvary Hills Baptist, she often led Bible study for her own age group. She had a gift for teaching; only Eternity will reveal its impact on those who were privileged to hear her words and watch her beautiful, expressive hands help tell those life-changing stories of God’s love and forgiveness and salvation found only at Calvary. She loved to sing and listen to the timeless hymns of the faith, especially as performed by the Gaither Homecoming Friends and by Tennessee Ernie Ford, and it was this music that comforted her greatly after Ferd’s unexpected death in 2006. A voracious reader, she was rarely without a book or two in progress along with a stack of magazines on her side table waiting to be finished before the next month’s editions arrived.

We are grateful for so much: Pastor Bob McCarter of Northwest Park Baptist for the comfort he brought to Mother and all the family; the incalculable skill of the Heart-to-Heart hospice staff to alleviate Mother’s distress; the compassion of her caretakers at Honey’s House of Helotes. And since we spent many shut-in Sundays being blessed by the broadcast of First Baptist Church, donations to continue this valuable ministry are welcomed: FBCSA TV Ministry, 515 McCullough, San Antonio TX 78215.

Mable leaves behind five children: Linda Zedler Talley, Carol Steward (Ron), Kathleen Doucette (Louis), Kevin (Mary) Zedler, and Collin Zedler; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister Margaret Doris Sims and numerous nieces and nephews. May our mother’s legacy of following Christ continue into future generations until we are all reunited at His Throne.

Memorial service will take place at Sunset Northwest Funeral Home, 6321 Bandera Road, at 10:00 on Saturday, August 22, 2015. A lunch reception will follow at Grady’s Bar-B-Q at 7400 Bandera Road. Mable loved anything yellow, the happy color of sunshine, so please feel free to wear cheerful colors to the service. Ferd’s and Mable’s cremains will be interred together at a later date at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

The jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul and Silas said, “Believe [trust] on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ...” (Acts 16:30-31)