Wilma K. Badger

A long life, lived well, calls for celebration, honor, and respect. It is our good fortune to celebrate, honor, and respect Wilma’s 103 years of steadfast living within a pioneer spirit.

What lessons can we learn from someone who has lived for more than a century? Wilma might suggest to us the importance of caring for those we call family, judiciously choosing our words and carefully considering our actions, and caring for ourselves by engaging both our creativity and our intellect.

Wilma was born on May 16, 1920, in Benton County, Indiana, the first of five children. Her father, Otis Gurley, was a farmer. Her mother, Julia (Keyes) Gurley, was a teacher. Wilma had one sister, Margie, and three brothers, Dick, Phil, and Bob Andy. Wilma found the singularity, ingenuity, creativity, hard work, and self-sufficiency that characterizes rural life in Indiana endearing. She graduated from Fowler High School, Class of 1938.

While studying at Purdue University, Wilma met her husband Edward Badger. They married in 1941. Soon they welcomed three children: Richard, Elizabeth, and John. Ed served in the Army during WWII and then worked for B.F. Goodrich for 30 years. As a result, over the course of their marriage they lived in Indiana, Washington, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Canada, and Ohio. Along the way, she mastered the ability to set up stylish, practical, and comfortable homes in every place they landed. Ed and Wilma were married for 67 years.

Throughout her life, Wilma found fulfillment and purpose in caring for her family and in her many and varied hobbies.

Wilma served as the unofficial keeper of memory and family lore for the Badger and Keyes families. She conducted extensive research into both family histories, and with Ed travelled the country trying to document the Keyes and Badger family lineages back several generations. As the default family CEO, Wilma often found herself inheriting Badger and Keyes family heirlooms. As a result, she acquired many beautiful antiques and interesting treasures which enhanced her own collection and eventually filled at least one barn, the shop, the basement, the attic, the garage, and many rooms at her home in Ohio.

Wilma had a special talent for tailoring and textile arts, including dressmaking, quilting, needle point, crochet, and knitting. It was a knowledge set passed down through generations of women in her family, and Wilma was highly skilled at it. Many family members cherish the immaculately made gifts that they received from her over the years, including quilts, dolls, clothing, afghans, Christmas stockings, needlepoints, and extremely precious items such as the wedding dress she made for her daughter Beth.

In addition to her talents with needle and fabric, Wilma found enjoyment in various other crafts and creative endeavors, ranging from painted ceramics to hand-beaded Christmas ornaments to gorgeous gift-wrapping. In the 1970s she started a business specializing in fine picture framing, which she operated successfully for 30 years. Finally, she was a very good letter writer, a skill that is quickly disappearing in the 21st century.

While Wilma and Ed made homes in many places, their last home in Ravenna, Ohio, was their most special achievement because it served as the default family gathering spot for 40 years, especially during holidays. Always, the rifle and the oxen yoke were hanging above fireplace at Industry Road. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays at “the farm” were like walking into a living Norman Rockwell painting: elegant and relaxing, nostalgic and welcoming all at once. Fourth of July gatherings involved, among other activities, tractor bucket rides for the grandchildren, four wheeling, watermelon seed-spitting contests, water balloon fights, golf carts, bell ringing, ice cream making, hammock naps, softball games, fishing, fireworks, and clay pigeon shooting. Ed and Wilma’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren hold many fond and formative memories from the farm, including celebrating granddaughter Debbie’s 2019 wedding; and the construction of a pond, a covered bridge, a baseball field, multiple barns, and a small vineyard on the property.

Wilma is survived by her three children, Richard Joseph Badger, Elizabeth Ann Dougherty, and John Robert Badger; 10 grandchildren: Doug, Debbie, David, KC, Sarah, Katie, Eric, Emily, Jennifer, Ryan; eleven great grandchildren; two great great grandchildren; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

A memorial will be held at Wood-Kortright-Borkoski, 703 East Main Street, Ravenna, Ohio, on February 16. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Sergeant Dougherty Fundraiser c/o Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, 909 North Washington Street #400 Alexandria, VA 22314, Attention: Alissa Weisman.