Obituary of Edna Ann Waggoner

Funeral Services for Edna Ann Waggoner of Elsberry, MO will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, November 7, 2015 at Carter-Ricks Funeral Home in Elsberry. Rev. Conrad Cheatham, pastor of the Mt. Zion ARPresbyterian Church, will officiate with burial in the Elsberry City Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be Louis Houston, Gene Houston, Mitchell Houston, Billy Lanning, Kevin Hailey, Ron Vaughn, Jr, Drew Grimes and John Dietrich. Serving as an honorary pallbearer will be Cameron Houston. Mrs. Waggoner, 87, passed away Wednesday afternoon, November 4, 2015 at the Elsberry Health Care Center near Elsberry. Born February 1, 1928 in the Okete community near Elsberry, she was the daughter of Louis Benjamin and Nancy Baskett Houston. A lifelong resident of the Elsberry community, she was a 1945 graduate of Elsberry High School. Eddie Ann was united in marriage on October 29, 1949 in Troy, MO to William Bower “Bill” Waggoner. This union was blessed with two children, William Douglas and Deborah Sue. Eddie Ann worked as a bookkeeper/clerk/pharmacy tech for the Elsberry Pharmacy for 43 years. She also served as a local news correspondent for the Hannibal Courier Post for many years. Eddie Ann co-authored “The Next 25 Years Elsberry History” book. She was a member of The MASTERS (Missouri Association of State Troopers Emergency Relief Society); the American Bible Society; and a former member of the Jesse Black Club in Elsberry. Eddie Ann was a 50-year member of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, Chapter AI in Elsberry where she served as the Missouri P.E.O. Outreach Fund chairwoman for many years. She was a lifelong member of the Mt. Zion ARPresbyterian Church near Elsberry. Long after her husband, Bill served as mayor of Elsberry for over twenty years, Eddie Ann was loved as the First Lady of Elsberry. She was also considered an honorary member of the Elsberry Volunteer Fire Department as she would often deliver sandwiches, cookies and drinks to the firefighters as they were fighting a fire. She was preceded in death by her parents, Nancy Houston and Louis Houston and her step-mother, Frances Houston; three sisters: Betty Jo Palmer, Mary Alice Houston and Libby Walton; and her husband of 60 years, Bill Waggoner, who died December 30, 2009. Survivors include one son, Douglas Waggoner and his wife, Nancy, of Jefferson City, MO; one daughter, Debbie Waggoner of Columbia, MO; two grandchildren: Philip Waggoner and his wife, Anna, of Fort Polk, LA, and Sara Waggoner of Ellisville, MO; and two great-granddaughters: Alana and Adrienne Waggoner. She also leaves two brothers: Louis Houston and his wife, Becky, of Elsberry, and Ben Houston and his wife, Melba, of Elsberry; three sisters: Margaret-Bruce Assaf of Troy, MO, Polly Steeves and her husband, Paul, of DeLand, FL, and Fran Grimes and her husband, Jim, of Eolia, MO; one brother-in-law, Hank Walton of Kinderhook, IL several nieces, nephews, other relatives and many, many friends. Visitation will be held from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2015 at Carter-Ricks Funeral Home in Elsberry. Memorials may be made to the Edna Ann Waggoner Scholarship Fund or the Mount Zion ARPresbyterian Church in care of Carter-Ricks Funeral Home, 107 S. 5th Street; Elsberry, MO 63343.