Edward Laird Osborne

Edward left his home in Oregon at the age of 17, with no money or definite purpose but to hit the road. Ed jumped on an empty boxcar train heading south; he got off the train in CA and worked for room and board for 12 months. Ed joined the Marines on June 1, 1950. Ed was assigned to go to the Korean War but before he was able to join his squadron, he was injured and sent to sick bay, missing his flight to take him to Korea. Ed later learned that almost the entire squadron perished. He always knew that God had a purpose in saving his life. When Ed made it to Korea, he served onboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex, for the majority of his deployment. Prior to this, in boot camp, Ed made a lifetime friendship with Russell Kidd. After Ed was done with his duty on the USS Essex, he then was transferred to Washington, D. C. where Ed met the love of his life, Kathryn Angle.

Edward and Kathryn were married 68 years ago in a double wedding ceremony with Russell and Ruby Kidd on April 11, 1953. Ed was being sent to officer’s training but decided that it would not be in their best interests to stay in the military as a married couple. Edward was honorably discharged, May 31, 1954. They then moved to Long Beach, CA where their daughter Laurie was born. In the dead of winter, with a six-week-old baby, they were moving to Rupert, Idaho to claim a homestead farm they had won. Ed, Kate, and little Laurie lived in a tiny 6x10 cabin that Ed built and hauled to Rupert.

Not far away, another couple, recently married, also won a homestead, Jim and Margaret Bone. Jim and Margaret built a tiny 16x25 cabin. They had left all their family to start farming. In their loneliness, they were praying together hoping if they could win one soul for Christ, then it would all be worth it. During this time Jim met Ed and the two began to share equipment. This is when their son Rodney was born in Rupert, Idaho. In the spring of 1956, Florence Cobb and Phyllis Wells, two poor homeless handmaidens of the Lord, came to stay with Jim and Margaret. They stayed in a tiny tear drop trailer. One day, Ed came to Jim Bone’s home, and Jim mustering up the courage, stuttering and shaking, leaned up to Ed’s pickup window and asked Ed if he would be willing to come to listen to the gospel in their tiny cabin. Ed shut off the pickup and said, “we are ready to listen to anything”.

For nine months Ed and Kate listened to the gospel, which led to them making the most important choice of their lives. The gospel meetings had been moved to Ed and Kate’s home and that is where they made their choice. Much of the comfort we feel today is a direct result of that choice. That choice to serve the Lord was the anchor to their marriage and in all the dark and stormy days of life. It would bring the greatest joys of their lives bringing them into a fellowship with saints and workers. (Ed, while faced with certain death, often expressed his profound thankfulness for the workers and friends.)

In the following months, Russell was also born in Rupert, Idaho. Having decided to sell the farm, they moved to Spokane Washington, for two months, then Chicago where Ed attended a Mechanical School, then to Concord, CA where their son Dan was born, then to Salinas, CA, then San Luis Obispo, and then back to Rupert, Idaho because the farm sale fell through. Ed went searching for work and started Osborne’s Appliance in Minot, North Dakota where Kaylene was born. Later, having sold his company, he moved his family to Seattle, WA where Cheryl was born. They stayed there for 35 years where he started another Osborne’s Appliance which he sold when he moved to California. For the last 19 years, Ed enjoyed living in Merced.

Edward is survived by his loving wife, Kate. They have 6 children: Laurie Mooney and husband Jim of Wenatchee, WA, Rod Osborne of Bellevue, WA, Russell Osborne and his wife Ingrid of Merced, CA, Dan Osborne and his wife Tami of Wenatchee, WA, Kaylene McKinnon and her husband Graham of Auckland, New Zealand, and Cheryl Behm and her husband Steve of Merced, CA, and 15 grandchildren and 12 greatgrandchildren. Also, Ed is survived by his brothers, Bill Osborne and Phil Osborne, and literally hundreds of true friends. Edward is preceded in death by his mother and father, his twin, Herman Osborne, and his sister Catherine Bergstrom.