Alma Florence Edmonds

Edmonds, Alma Leaver Vaughan was 92 years old when she passed from this world on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, at Barnes Jewish St. Peters Hospital, St. Peters, MO, near her home. She was born February 4, 1919, in Laddonia, Missouri. Alma had many interests in her life. In 1938, when she was eighteen, she taught in a one room schoolhouse. She earned her master’s degree in English at University of Missouri. She raised her family in Missouri and Hawaii. She worked as an editor for the University of Missouri Press. Spending many years working as a Newspaper Librarian for the State Historical Society of Missouri, she was an enthusiastic genealogist and left very full and detailed records of her family’s history to pass on for generations. Alma was also a writer of fiction and had many of her dramatic short stories published in periodicals and literary magazines. She was also an avid gardener, cook and quilter and had an appreciation of both literary and visual arts. Alma is survived by her loving family: her second husband Nuel Edmonds; sister Oneita Getman and husband Clarence Getman; children Anthony Vaughan and wife Martha Vaughan, and Amanda Bryant and husband Kelly Bryant; grandchildren Mickie Mueller and husband Dan Mueller, Eric Vaughan and wife Andrea Vaughan Robin Whitacre and husband Jeremy Whitacre; great-grandchildren Brittany Sherman and husband Paul Sherman, Chelsea Hodges, Tristan Mueller, Dylan Vaughan, and Jacob Vaughan; and great-great-grandchildren Olivia Sherman and Rhys Sherman. Alma was predeceased by her parents Lawrence Leaver and Florence Leaver, her first husband William Marshall Vaughan, her sister Emma Claire Henry, and her son William Gunning Vaughan. Alma will be remembered with loving hearts in a small family gathering in Springfield Missouri. In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation may be made to Habitat for Humanity. The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. - Stephen Ambrose