Edith Gustus

Edith Amelia Gustus, nee Hulting, departed this life May 30, 2020 in the Freeport Health Network Memorial Hospital, attended by her children, Rolfe (Lia) Gustus of Scales Mound, IL, Ingrid Williams of Seattle, WA, Brand (Donna) Gustus of Mount Prospect, IL, and Leon (June) Gustus of Palm Harbor, FL.  She was 98 years old and preceded in death by her husband of almost 70 years, Oscar Truman Gustus of Cambridge, IL, a brother, Cyril (Kathryn) Hulting of Geneseo, IL, and a nephew, Dr. Stephen Koontz.  She is also mourned by her sister-in-law, Beverly Twichell of Redlands, CA.

Nieces and nephews who will miss her are Linda Roman of Atkinson, IL, Janice Horberg of Morrison, IL, Kurt (Deb) Horberg of Cambridge, Roger (Billie) Hulting of Geneseo, Wayne (Jean) Hulting of Minneapolis, MN, David (Karen) Twichell of Highland, CA, Karl (Marianne) Twichell of El Paso, TX, and Rebecca Stumm of Buffalo, NY.  She has 9 grandchildren and one great-grandson as well.

Edith grew up on the Geneseo farm belonging to her parents, G. E. and Amelia (Meier) Hulting.  She had a driver's license at age 14 since her brother,Cyril, had sent in for one.  She studied piano and organ and earned $10 a week already as a high school girl playing for church and choir practice.  Edith has a lifelong interest in sports, having played catcher to her brother's pitching practice out at the farm.

At Augustana College in Rock Island, she met her future husband, a fine tenor.  She said that on their first date, they sat in the back row of a concert, but fell to laughing so hard they had to leave.  During the War, they traveled around the country together.  She pulled the trailer with baby Rolfe in the car, following her husband to his flight trainer assignments.  They raised four children in Rock Island and the northwest suburbs, and they later traveled to Europe and Alaska and were among the first to visit the newly opened China.  After her husband's death, Edith often said that he had been a wonderful person to get to spend your life with.

With first a house at Apple Canyon Lake and then a tree farm on Brandt Road, the Gustus settled in Scales Mound, Illinois, where Edith was active at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church and in the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation, which they helped found.  In her later years, she lived at the winter house in Tucson, enjoying golf and Gem and Mineral Club activities.  Her grandchildren remember her as smart and quick to see the funny side of things.  She would sit knitting and watching either golf or the Bloomberg Channel.  They say she might have been a stockbroker in another age.

Stackhouse-Moore Funeral & Cremation Services, Cambridge, is assisting the family with the arrangements.  A memorial service will be held at First Lutheran Church of Geneseo on Friday, August 13, 2021, at 11:00 a.m.   Rev. Laura Kamprath will officiate.  Inurnment will be in Rosedale Cemetery, Cambridge.   Memorials may be made to the Edith Gustus Memorial Fund and may be sent to the Midwest Community Bank, P.O. Box 689, Freeport, IL 61032, or to the Gustus Foundation at Augustana College in Rock Island.