Edward A. Anderson's Obituary
Edward Abraham Anderson was born in a tent in Longdale, Oklahoma on November 19, 1931 to Willard Anderson and Anna Bell Tea. He gave up his final battle with cancer at home in Lakewood, Washington, surrounded by loved ones, on July 26, 2019 at the age of 87.
Edward was not famous in the traditional sense of the word. His early life on the farm as the 5th of 6 children may have been easy to overlook. There was no loud “hurrah” from family and friends when he earned his GED in Hawaii while serving in the US Army Signal Corp during the Korean War, earning an honorable discharge. He was not lauded for his work helping to set up satellite communications for the train carrying Nikita Khrushchev on his first state visit to America in 1959 or for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Few knew his name when he served in the Hawaiian rainforest on classified communication jobs, or Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War and the Tet Offensive, or on the DEW line in Alaska. He was a backup steel guitar player for the likes of Johnny Cash, June Carter and countless other famous country singers in the 1950s at a rough and tumble beer hall named Okie’s in Foster Park, CA.
Edward is survived by his wife of 43 years, Marlene. His 7 children and stepchildren, Diana (Val), Greg (Judy), Sandy (Dave), Renee (Ed), Pam, Jim (Chris), and Edward Jr. (Debbie). To his family, wife, children, 26 grandchildren and countless great-grandchildren and spouses, and those many whose life he touched in small and large ways, he was Charming and Openhearted, he was Superman and Dear Heart, he was Dad and the famous great and only Paca.
“Invictus” William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
What’s your fondest memory of Edward ?
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