Edith Barstad was born on a farm in Williams County North Dakota on September 23, 1917. Her parents were Albert Lee and Bertha (Brewer) Lee. She attended the first 8 grades and 3 years of high school in country schools near home and graduated high school in Williston, ND in 1934. Edith entered nursing school in Williston, in 1937 and graduated in 1940. She first met Chester Barstad when he was a patient there. Chet moved to Seattle and Edith went to Long Beach, California from nursing school to work at a hospital until she entered the army in 1943. She was stationed at an army hospital in Spokane and met Chet again on leave to North Dakota and a few months later they were married in Coeur d'elene, Idaho. Shortly after, Edith was sent overseas to Italy and assigned to an evacuation hospital which moved often to be closer to the front lines. The war in Europe ended in 1945 and she was sent to the Philippines to a station hospital and shortly after discharged. She and Chet then moved to Lawrence, Kansas where they ran a restaurant and Richard was born in 1947. They went back to Williston again and Diane was born there in1950. After her mom died, she took Richard & Diane on a train out to California to rejoin Chet. Ronald was born in Long Beach in 1956. In 1961 the family moved to Oregon where she worked for 20 years at Salem State Hospital and Dammasch Hospital before retiring in 1979. After retirement, she and Chet spent winters in Yuma, Arizona and summers in Woodburn, Oregon. Chet passed away in 1995. They were married for 51 years. Edith remained in Woodburn until 2012.
Edith is survived by her three children, Richard & Patty Barstad, Diane Held and Ron Barstad, 7 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
Funeral service will be held Tues. Nov. 5, 2013 at 2:00 PM at Simon-Cornwell Colonial Chapel- Woodburn. Private Interment at Belle Passi Cemetery-Woodburn