Edna Thimes

Edna Florence Thimes (1914-1995). Missionary Nurse. Evangelist. Edna was born to Henry J. and Martha (Son) Thimes on September 26, 1914, fourth child of five, in a loving, but unchurched family. They lived on a farm near Emporia, Kansas. Henry and Martha taught the children high moral standards and a reverence for God. Edna was fourteen when she first attended a Church of God congregation and was saved within two months.

After graduating from high school, she attended Anderson College, Anderson, Indiana, graduating in 1940 with a Bachelor of Theology. She trained to be a registered home nurse at the St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing at Anderson and at the former Bethany Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas.

She served as a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent in her home church and spent her vacations as a resident nurse at the Anderson Church of God campmeeting.

Edna served in the mission field in Kenya, East Africa for 22 years at the Mwihila Hospital at Kisumu and in Kima. She once said that half the babies born in Kenya were named “Edna” in her honor. Her special interest were babies whose mothers had died in childbirth. She often kept them until they were two, sharing the love of Jesus with them and returning them to their fathers when they could eat regular table food.

When Edna retired from the mission field, she returned to her home in the United States, next moving for a time to California to live near a niece, and finally returning to Kansas City.

Edna’s big heart gave out on June 22, 1995. Her “heavenly graduation ceremony” was conducted at the former First Church of God and her body is buried in Emporia.

* Near the time of my birth, the ladies at church, including Edna, had a baby shower for my mother, presenting her with a hooded baby towel embroidered with their signatures. We considered her family, as she shared an Uncle William and Aunt Lillian with my mother's maternal Aunt Nadine. Furloughs from the mission field were five years apart and she stayed with us or my grandparents during her deputation visits to churches nearby. I corresponded with her during my teen years and once sent her $5.00 out of my allowance. She wrote a thank you note, stating she had purchased an apple as a treat in the local market. Apples didn’t grow in the climate there and she had been hankering for a taste of home. My mother played the organ for Edna’s funeral service. She’s rejoicing in heaven!

More to Read:

1. Anderson University Alumni, alumni@anderson.edu

2. Church of God Missions Magazines, various issues from 1961-1978.

3. US Federal Census

4. Ancestry.com
5. "Bethany Hospital." History of Wyandotte County, Kansas: and its people. Edited by Perl Wilbur Morgan, p. 413-415.  Vol. 1
6. Edna's Embroidered Signature
7. Findagrave #116965706

Places to visit in KS.

1. New Life Family (formerly First Church of God), 4835 Shawnee Drive, Kansas City, KS. 913-262-8048
2. Bethany Methodist Hospital  (org. 1892) stood at the corner of 12th & Reynolds, Kansas City, KS until July 2001 when it closed. Stand at that corner and imagine all the babies born there! 
3. Providence Hospital's Medical Museum in the Main Entrance Lobby. (Contains two cabinets of Bethany Hospital & Nursing School memorabilia.), 8929 Parallel, Kansas City, KS.

4. Maple Woods Memorial Lawn Cemetery, Emporia, KS


Biography written by Dolores J. Rush, updated: 10/25/2019