On Tuesday, June 14, 2022, Marie LaThelle Hasty Edmiston, passed peacefully to her heavenly reward at the age of 101.

Born on July 17, 1920, near Florence, Texas, in Williamson County, Marie was the only child of her loving parents, Ernest Lindsey Hasty and Velma Mary Hoover Hasty. She was born in the home of her grandparents, the same home in which her daddy had been born.

Around the age of five, Marie moved with her parents to a farm which they had purchased outside of Lometa in Lampasas County. Situated with mountains on three sides, their rocky little farm could only be accessed by a lane a mile long which tended to get extremely muddy in wet weather. There they survived on mostly what they produced themselves or could trade others for while the country endured the Great Depression.

The year Marie graduated from Lometa High School was the year the school system switched from 11 years to 12. She decided to stay an extra year to take post-graduate classes. During her final year at Lometa High School, she also worked as a secretary in the school office and directed many of the school's activities.

By borrowing $900 from his Woodmen of the World life insurance policy, Marie's Daddy managed to send her to college at John Tarleton in Stephenville, which was a two-year junior college at the time. After graduating from Tarleton, Marie took a teaching position in a school at Oakalla in Burnet County.

The next summer, Marie took courses at Howard Payne in Brownwood to improve her teaching skills. While she was there, the Lampasas County judge, a good friend of her daddy, contacted her about a job opening at the Katemcy school in Mason County. So, on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1942, her parents drove her in their 1929 Chevrolet coupe to meet with the Katemcy school board members, a long hot drive in those days.

Marie was hired for the teaching position at Katemcy and found a room in which to board nearby in the home of Mrs. Julia Evans. In preparation for the coming school year, a board member, Lange Edmiston, drove her into Mason to get the textbooks she would need. As they came across Mason Mountain, the beautiful view of the hills below took her breath away, and immediately she fell in love with Mason County and the Texas Hill Country.

It wasn't long before Marie fell in love with that same school board member, as well. On a December night in 1942, Lange Edmiston came to get her from Mrs. Evan's home and drove her to the gate of his ranch where he proposed. They were married soon thereafter on January 9, 1943, which also happened to be his father's birthday. On that Saturday morning, they collected his cousin, Augusta Lange, to go with them as a witness and headed to Fredericksburg. There they met Lange's friend, Dorman Sell, who worked there at the time and accompanied them to the courthouse to help them get their marriage license. From there, they drove to Austin where they were married at the University Avenue Church of Christ by the minister, Basil D. Shilling.

Thus their married life began. Marie finished out that school year, and she would later comment she was probably the least experienced teacher Katemcy ever had! Lange then told her he didn't need a school teacher; he needed someone to open gates. And open gates she did, along with anything and everything else that needed to be done on the ranch. On that ranch she would stay for the next 70 years, leaving reluctantly a few years after the deaths of both her husband and her son, Edgar, in 2009. She and Lange were married for more than 66 years.

For a country woman, Marie was exceptionally well traveled. She and Lange visited every state in the continental United States, including Alaska. Marie was a 50-year member of the Eastern Star #167 in Brady, Texas, becoming Worthy Matron in May 1951. She was also a faithful member of the Mason Church of Christ until she moved to Bryan in 2016 to be close to her daughter. Even still, the Mason church members would always remain in her heart as her family.

Above all else, Marie was a Christian. She lived her faith daily. She was a wonderful cook and prepared many a dish for church meals, sick neighbors, and whoever happened to walk through her door. She reached out to others, befriending young and old alike. She helped care for her mother-in-law during her declining years, and then later for her husband and son as well.

Marie was preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband, Lange, and their son, Edgar and his wife, Virginia. She is survived by her son, William (Tylene) Edmiston and her daughter, Marilynn (David) Hood. She is also survived by seven grandchildren who adored her: Robin Edmiston, Glenn Edmiston, Ericka Edwards, Chip Edmiston, Erin Casey, Amy Simoneaux, and Andy Hood. Additionally, she is survived by thirteen great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

Visitation with the family will be held on Sunday, June 19, from 4:00–6:00 p.m. at the Mason Funeral Home Chapel. Graveside services will be held Monday, June 20 at 10:00 a.m. at the Bethel Cemetery at Camp Air. A memorial service will follow at 11:00 a.m. at the Mason Church of Christ with minister Mark Kirby officiating. Pallbearers will be Jerry Bearden, Nickie Nobles, Chip Edmiston, Robin Edmiston, Andy Hood, and Josh Rush. Honorary pallbearers will be Paul Lehmberg, Brian Smith, Nolan Donop, and the members of the Mason Church of Christ. Donations to honor her memory may be made to the Cherokee Children's Home in Cherokee, Texas.

The family would like to express their gratitude for the loving care provided by Hospice Brazos Valley and the wonderful staff at Crestview Skilled Nursing in Bryan, Texas.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at masonfuneralhome.net

Arrangements have been entrusted to Mason Funeral Home.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at masonfuneralhome.net