Jo Elaine Edlin

Jo Elaine Edlin, 74, peacefully went to heaven March 26, 2025 at her home in Olathe, Kansas. She was born April 14, 1950 to E. Lawrence and Hazel Morris Goodman in Kankakee, Illinois. Her father was attending Olivet Nazarene College at the time. The family moved to Overland Park, Kansas for a few years before settling in Lexington, Kentucky where she grew up.

In 1968, Jo graduated from Lafayette High School in Lexington where she sang in the choir and the Charmettes, an elite women’s ensemble. She attended Lexington First Church of the Nazarene with her family and played the piano for Sunday night services. She enrolled as a pre-nursing major in the first class of MidAmerica Nazarene College in Olathe, Kansas where she served as the first editor of the school newspaper and was voted the first Silver Belle Queen. She eventually fulfilled her lifelong dream and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Kansas Nursing School in Kansas City in 1973. Over her career as an R.N., she worked in various hospitals on pediatrics, postpartum, and newborn nursery floors. In Louisville, Kentucky she taught expecting parent classes. She also spent several years as a doctor’s office nurse and with hospice. She often said that her five years as a hospice nurse were the most fulfilling of her career. She loved caring for people throughout her life.

Jo married her college sweetheart Jim Edlin on December 18, 1971 at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, Kansas. She was a loving wife and supportive companion to her husband for over fifty years. Her nursing career provided family income while Jim attended graduate schools in Kansas City, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky. She served alongside of her husband as a beloved pastor’s wife in LaMoure, North Dakota, as campus nurse for Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines, and as a professor’s wife at MidAmerica Nazarene University.

Together Jo and Jim raised three wonderful children, each born in different places. Julie was born in Louisville, Kentucky, Janelle in Ellendale, North Dakota, and Jonathan in the Philippines. These three were the greatest joys of her life, until they had children. Jo took grandparenting seriously, pouring her life into her six remarkable grandchildren. She prayed daily for them, as she did for her children and their spouses, and found ways to intentionally invest in their lives. Above all, she wanted them to know that they would always be loved unconditionally by her and by God.

Jo asked Jesus into her heart when she was four-year old and sought to serve him all her life. She was warm and friendly toward everyone she met, forming lasting friendships with many people over the years inside and outside the church. She loved to laugh, especially at herself. Above all else, as she often said, Jo wanted to do whatever God ask of her.

Jo leaves behind her husband of 53 years Jim, her daughter Julie Bryant and her husband Eric, her daughter Janelle MacKay and her husband Matt, and her son Jon Edlin and his wife Mindy. She also leaves behind six much-loved grandchildren, Jacob and Daniel Bryant, Addison and Macie MacKay, and Carolina and Graham Edlin. She also leaves behind her loving sister Judy Nash and her husband Ed as well as beloved in-laws, nieces, great-nieces and nephews, cousins, and lifelong friends.

A Memorial Service is planned for Saturday April 5 at 11:00 a.m. in the main sanctuary of College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, Kansas. A visitation will take place from 9:30-10:45 am prior to the service. The service will be live streamed.

In lieu of flowers, Jo requested gifts to the College Church Garrett Chapel Ministry, which helps families using the chapel for weddings and funerals. or MNU Student Scholarship Sons and Daughters of the Pioneers..