Edna Marie Arnette

In Loving Memory of

Edna “Marie” Arnette

Born

October 5, 1931

Bowdens, North Carolina

Went Home to Heaven

July 2, 2015

Interment

Ivy Lawn Cemetery

Ventura, CA

Edna M. Arnette, age 83, a devout Christian, went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, July 2. She was born October 5, 1931 in Bowdens, North Carolina to Bert and Lala Killette Grady. She married Dempsey “Eugene” Arnette at a young age and, in 1956, moved from the farm in Faison, North Carolina, to Ventura, California, to start a new adventure. After having four children, she went to work as a food service worker at Camarillo State and Simi Valley Adventist hospitals. After she retired from hospital work, she took a job with Harbor Freight Tools in Camarillo as a customer service representative. In 2000, she moved to Roseburg, OR, where she lived until last year when she moved to Simi Valley to live with her son and his wife.

Edna felt the calling of the Lord at a young age. Even though her family did not attend church regularly, Edna walked to church every Sunday when she was very young. She didn’t recall a time in her life when she was without the Lord. Later, after she married and moved to California, she was a devoted member of the Full Gospel Lighthouse Church in Oak View, CA. She later became a member at the First Assembly of God in Ventura and also the New Life Christian Center in Roseburg, OR. Beginning in May of 2014, she attended StoneBridge Community Church.

Edna was a storyteller. She loved telling old family tales and could embellish them with her own spunk and wit. Known for her love of the card game Canasta, her grandchildren fondly remember learning to play the game with her and that she played to win. She enjoyed reading, journaling and writing poetry.

She was always eager to serve by providing meals to neighbors and those in need, by volunteering at the Senior Center in Roseburg and by sharing her faith with anyone who would lend an ear. Edna was a prayer warrior. She never hesitated a moment to stop a conversation to say a prayer on behalf of someone in need. She had an uncanny ability to know when someone was in need of God’s attention and would pray often without knowing why that person was on her heart. She read her Bible daily.

She will be greatly missed by all her knew her and loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Bert and Lala Grady, her sister, Alberta Grady Sessoms, her brother, Odell “Bud” Grady, and her husband, Dempsey Eugene Arnette. She is survived by her sister, Doris Benson; her children, Beverly Eversole, Sharon Ward, Gary Arnette and Lisa Arnette; her grandchildren, Shannon Stewart Heer, Jennifer Stewart McGeorge, Nicholas Stewart, Andrea Hill Waibel, Mariah Hill-Chappel, Eric Arnette Leslie Arnette, Chris Eversole, Laura Eversole Piana, Julie Lane Tatom, and Rick Lane. Also surviving her are her 28 great grandchildren.