Edith Alpha Hartman

Edith Alpha Hartman was born on April 12, 1919,  in Orlando, Oklahoma to Walter and Lottie Plumer(Smith). She passed from this life to Heaven on November 28, 2023, at the age of 104.  Edie, as she preferred to be called, was the second of 7 children in the Plumer household. Though seven years old was the starting age for children to attend school at that time, Edie started school at five years of age as her parents did not want her older brother, Willard, to go to school alone. She was of the classic story of children who got up at dawn and did whatever chores were necessary, such as haying or milking cattle, feeding chickens and watering livestock. They would then eat breakfast and she and Willard would walk 2-3 miles to school often cutting through neighbor’s pastures to shorten the distance. On cold mornings their mom would include a hot potato in their rucksack which they would eat later. At the end of the school day, they walked back home, did additional chores until supper time, and then started their homework.

Her father, Walter, decided to leave the Orlando area to start a new farm and initially moved to the Vinita/Big Cabin area but was not satisfied with the land for farming. He then relocated to the Talala/Oologah area. Edie and Willard graduated from Big Cabin High School while the family shuffled between the two locations. There were 8 in her graduating class including her brother.

Edie later met and married her husband, Rex, with whom she shared 60 years of marriage until his death in 2000. They settled in Collinsville near the end of WWII and later the family moved outside town to their final home in 1956.  From their union they had 3 daughters and one son. Dale, Georgia, Rex Jr., and Lee. Each child graduated from Collinsville High School over a time period that spanned 16 years. Rex and Edith were long time members of the First Baptist Church, Collinsville, where they served in various church roles and ensured that their children learned about Jesus Christ, and where all would later come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Rex and Edith’s upbringing on farms in the depression era influenced their lives and how they raised their children. They taught each of us to take our responsibilities seriously and that whatever task we undertook, whether it was small or large, to do it to the best of our ability.

Edie was blessed to have retained her thought processes up until the time of her death. She could recall the genealogy of many of the earlier families in the Oologah – Collinsville area. She talked about many of the businesses that had come and gone and of the many changes which had taken place over the last 70 years to Collinsville. It was like a continuous history lesson.  Her four children all live in the Tulsa area and were blessed to get to see Edie often and spend many wonderful days with her and we will surely miss her.

Edie was preceded in death by her parents and by her brothers Willard, Fred and George and her sisters, Rebecca, and Ruth. She is survived by and her 4 children,  Dale Hartman, Georgia Knight, Rex Hartman Jr and Lee Gutierrez and her last sibling Dona. In addition, 5 grandchildren Tre Knight, Andee Primeaux, Sarah Brasor, Melanie Ellis, and Wyatt Gutierrez and 9 great-grandchildren. Amazingly,  she is also survived by her Aunt Leola.

Visitation will be Noon to 8:00 pm, Monday, December 4, 2023, at the Collinsville Dolton Funeral Home. The family will be present from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Edie’s funeral service will take place on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, at 10:00 am at Collinsville First Baptist Church with Dr. Tim Prock presiding and arrangements will be under the direction of Collinsville Dolton Funeral Home. Interment will follow at Ridgelawn Cemetery in Collinsville.