Esther A. Rose

Esther passed away May 15, 2019 at Hospice of the Valley in Surprise, AZ. She was born September 4, 1922 in Lehigh, KS to Katie and August Unruh. She was the youngest of 10 children. She was raised during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. She graduated from Lehigh High School in 1940 and attended McPherson College.In 1942, she was scheduled to teach at a one room school house with all grades. That job included going to the building early each morning to start the wood fire to heat the building. Instead, Esther decided to see the ocean. Her father took her to the bus station and gave her a $20.00 bill. She used that to go to Long Beach, California, where her two older sisters were working. After a few years there, she returned to Kansas and went to work at the Veterans Administration. In 1946, she met Wally Rose at the VA and they married in November of 1946.They had two sons, Robert and Theodore. In 1950, Wally was recalled to the Air Force during the Korean War. He made it a career and the family lived in Wichita, KS, Ft. Worth, TX, Denver, CO, San Bernardino, CA, and finally Dayton, OH. While they were stationed in Denver, Wally spent the entire year of 1958 in Vietnam. Esther managed the household and worked both part and full time at many of the stops. After Wally retired in 1971, they moved to Colorado Springs, CO. While there, they spent a month touring Europe, another month touring New England in a VW bus, sailed through the Panama Canal, and finally flew on the Concorde supersonic jet from New York to London and returned on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship. In the early 1990s, they bought a condo in Sun City West, AZ and spent the next several years as snowbirds. Wally had major medical surgeries starting in 2007 and was transferred to a nursing home in Sun City West in 2008 where he remained until his death in 2011. Esther dutifully went and visited with him every morning and afternoon until his passing. Esther lived in the condo until her health failed in early 2019. She was a wonderful, loving wife and mother. She and Wally were always there to help any family member, not just their sons. She was preceded in death by her loving husband Wally, her parents, and all nine of her siblings. She is survived by her sons and their wives, Robert and Adrienne (Jones) Rose of Munds Park, AZ, and Ted and Melody (Maxwell) Rose of Pasadena, California as well as numerous nieces and nephews. A service will be held at a later date for both Wally and Esther at the Prescott National Cemetery in Prescott, AZ. Please direct any contributions to the Disabled American Veterans.