Edith Eastergard
June 2, 1917 — August 19, 2015
Ruth Edith Pedersen was born on June 2, 1917, to Alfred and Margrethe (Jacobsen) Pedersen in Ustrup, Denmark, on the island of Sjelland. When Edith was still a toddler, she would climb up a chair and comb her father's hair. At six, her father allowed her to cut his hair. She worked on it for an hour. She snipped and snipped until it was just as she wanted it to be. He looked with admiration at the fine job that Edith had done, and she was so pleased that he was happy with the result of her first efforts. The next time her father went to the barber, Edith carefully observed the barber as he cut the top of her father's hair to learn proper technique. Her career was born.
Years later, while studying for her four-year degree in cosmetology, Edith attended a social function at a house maintained by the Baptist Church for college students. While sitting with her friends, a handsome young man approached her with a pencil and paper in his hand. He told her he was collecting names and phone numbers of attractive young ladies. She told him plainly that he would not collect hers! Edith learned later that the young man's name was Anker Eastergard. Years later, Anker and Edith would be married in 1941 in Stenlille , Denmark, and become parents to four children: George, Kirsten, Alf, and Annette.
A friend of Anker's mother had a nephew in Harlan, Iowa, that agreed to sponsor Anker and Edith’s immigration to the United States. But Edith did not want to leave Denmark and prayed she would have a couple of small tubercular spots on her lungs to prevent their being able to go to America!
They told everyone goodbye and made final preparations to leave. Because Danish currency restrictions precluded them from taking their cash savings worth over $200,000 by today’s standards, they arrived in Harlan with only $50. Anker worked in a Harlan grocery store for the first two years before members of their church, Walter and Anna Knudsen, asked Anker if he would like to learn to build houses. He worked for them for five years. In the meantime, Edith was working diligently in her beauty shop. Edith suggested that Anker could fix up a house on his own if he wanted to do it. “That is how we got ahead,” explained Edith.
On January 8, 2003, Edith said good-bye to her sweetheart as the Lord took Anker home. Edith died on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at the Friendship Village in Waterloo, Iowa at the age of ninety-eight years, two months, and seventeen days. She was preceded in death by her parents, daughter Kirsten, sisters Agnethe and Astrid, and brother Johannes.
She is survived by her children: George Eastergard and his wife Mary and Alf Eastergard all of Greenville, South Carolina, and Annette and her husband J. Roger Wilson of Harlan, Iowa; six grandchildren: George Jr., Marcus, Jessica, Joel, Elicia, and Elizabeth; eleven great-grandchildren: Trey, Drew, Will, Megan, Lauren, Zach, James, John, Isabel, Joshua, and Joel; nieces and nephews still in Denmark: Eddy, Ib, Jon, Anna, Jan, and Helle; other family members and friends.
Years later, while studying for her four-year degree in cosmetology, Edith attended a social function at a house maintained by the Baptist Church for college students. While sitting with her friends, a handsome young man approached her with a pencil and paper in his hand. He told her he was collecting names and phone numbers of attractive young ladies. She told him plainly that he would not collect hers! Edith learned later that the young man's name was Anker Eastergard. Years later, Anker and Edith would be married in 1941 in Stenlille , Denmark, and become parents to four children: George, Kirsten, Alf, and Annette.
A friend of Anker's mother had a nephew in Harlan, Iowa, that agreed to sponsor Anker and Edith’s immigration to the United States. But Edith did not want to leave Denmark and prayed she would have a couple of small tubercular spots on her lungs to prevent their being able to go to America!
They told everyone goodbye and made final preparations to leave. Because Danish currency restrictions precluded them from taking their cash savings worth over $200,000 by today’s standards, they arrived in Harlan with only $50. Anker worked in a Harlan grocery store for the first two years before members of their church, Walter and Anna Knudsen, asked Anker if he would like to learn to build houses. He worked for them for five years. In the meantime, Edith was working diligently in her beauty shop. Edith suggested that Anker could fix up a house on his own if he wanted to do it. “That is how we got ahead,” explained Edith.
On January 8, 2003, Edith said good-bye to her sweetheart as the Lord took Anker home. Edith died on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at the Friendship Village in Waterloo, Iowa at the age of ninety-eight years, two months, and seventeen days. She was preceded in death by her parents, daughter Kirsten, sisters Agnethe and Astrid, and brother Johannes.
She is survived by her children: George Eastergard and his wife Mary and Alf Eastergard all of Greenville, South Carolina, and Annette and her husband J. Roger Wilson of Harlan, Iowa; six grandchildren: George Jr., Marcus, Jessica, Joel, Elicia, and Elizabeth; eleven great-grandchildren: Trey, Drew, Will, Megan, Lauren, Zach, James, John, Isabel, Joshua, and Joel; nieces and nephews still in Denmark: Eddy, Ib, Jon, Anna, Jan, and Helle; other family members and friends.
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