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- James Arthur "Red" Edwards (11/23/08)
Funeral services for James Arthur "Red" Edwards will be 2 p.m. Wednesday at First Assembly of God Church, with the Rev. Orvil Holden officiating.
Burial will follow in Mount Pisgah Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Gillette Memorial Chapel.
Mr. Edwards, 90, of Gillette died Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, at Pioneer Manor Nursing Home of natural causes.
He was born Feb. 16, 1918, to James Otis and Anna Mabel Edwards in Yuma, Colo. He was the oldest of eight children.
At age 2, his family homesteaded 35 miles south of Gillette, where the Highlight Oil Field is now located.
When he was in the first grade, he rode his pony three miles to the Lawver School until winter set in, then he stayed with the C.R. Winland family who lived near the school.
He left home at the age of 13 and worked for the King Bales Ranch.
At 15, he joined the Civil Conservation Corps in Gillette. His division was sent to Cody, where it built roads and bridges. Because of the Depression, the Corps automatically sent $25 of the monthly $30 paycheck to the boys' parents.
Later, he and his best friends, Rollo and Ralph Kintz, caught wild horses in the Rochelle Hills area, selling the animals to the Keeline Ranch.
Mr. Edwards and Rollo Kintz also dug water and sewer ditches by hand for the City of Gillette for 50 cents an hour.
Mr. Edwards enjoyed riding in the rodeos in the saddle bronc event.
He was a foreman at the Reynolds Aluminum Plant in Longview, Wash., before asthma forced him to quit, and later he was a heavy equipment operator for many years for Peter Kewitt and Sons.
In 1941, he married Betty Dickinson in Gillette. The couple had five children.
Mr. Edwards was a self-taught musician and could play several instruments, his favorite being the steel guitar. He formed a band while living in Longview, playing on the radio there.
After returning to Gillette, his band ??" consisting of his brother Jack, his sister Dorothy and himself ??" played at area dances and had a weekly program on KIML in Gillette.
In 1961, he married Kathryn Smelser. He built and operated the Hitching Post Trailer Park and also started the Edwards Water Well Service business.
He always had a love for horses and after retiring in 1977, he got into the thoroughbred horse racing business. He and his wife were on the racing circuit for the next 22 years, racing in Montana, Iowa, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania but mostly in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Mr. Edwards had been a resident of Pioneer Manor since November 2004.
He is survived by Kathryn, his wife of 47 years; sons Gerald Edwards of Douglas and Greg Edwards of Gillette; daughters Judy Jensen of Sacramento, Calif., Marilyn Matheson of Gillette and Carol Michel of Williams, Calif.; sister Betty Rhoads of Kaycee; brothers Clifford and Jack Edwards, both of Gillette; 16 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren, several cousins and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, three sisters Opal Perkins, Evelyn Crawford and Dorothy Reynolds and brother Robert Edwards.
Published: Saturday, November 22, 2008 11:52 PM MST
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1918 - 2008 (90 years)
