JESSIE FOSTER
Jessie Mildred (Scott) Foster lived her life side by side with her husband, Charles E. Foster.
The Fosters married young — Charles was 19 and Jessie was 16 — and spent their lives working and playing together.
“They were inseparable, always together,” daughter Janice Knigge, 72, said. “They were the perfect example of what a husband and wife should be.”
Mrs. Foster died at her home Saturday, July 17, 2010. She was 90.
She was born Oct. 12, 1919, in Marshall to Clifford Leroy Scott and Anna Kuntz Scott. She married Charles Foster on Aug. 15, 1936.
She and her husband moved to Columbia in 1946 to be near friends, who were starting the First Assembly of God Church. Mrs. Foster remained active in the church throughout her life, attending every Sunday and Wednesday. She also taught Sunday school and sang during the services.
Charles Foster was a mechanic and opened Foster’s Garage on Old Highway 40. While he worked on the cars, Mrs. Foster ran the gas pumps.
In 1955, the Fosters moved to a rented farm north of Columbia. They bought a 200-acre farm in 1959 and worked on it together.
“She would drive her tractor right next to his, getting the ground ready, planting,” Knigge said of her mother. “She did it all.”
Charles Foster served two terms as Boone County sheriff from 1977 to 1984, and after retiring, he and Mrs. Foster lived in Texas during the winter for several years. They lived together on their farm northeast of Columbia until Charles Foster died in 2004.
Mrs. Foster was a kind and loving woman, her daughter said.
“No one could have had a better mother,” Knigge said. “I never heard her raise her voice in anger.”
Caleb Knigge, Mrs. Foster’s great-grandson, said she was a terrific grandmother.
“She would always stop what she was doing and come play board games with us kids,” he said. “She’d get off the lawn mower to come play. The yard could wait.”
He also has fond memories of making pancakes with Mrs. Foster and said she always kept oatmeal cream pies in the cookie jar.
Mrs. Foster is survived by sister Mary “Tootie” Becker; daughters Janice Ann Knigge and Beverly Charlene Cleek; five grandchildren, Charretta Ann Terry, Jerry Dale Knigge, Charles William Knigge, Nancy Lynne Dolan and Lynda Sue Watts; 12 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.
Her husband; six siblings, Evelyn Smith, Geneva Knox, Frank Scott, Dorothy Raines, Martin Leroy Scott, Raymond Scott; and a grandson, Baby Boy Knigge, died earlier.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at First Assembly of God Church, 1100 N. Seventh Street in Columbia. Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at First Assembly of God Church with a private entombment to follow in Memorial Park Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to First Assembly of God Church, 1100 N. Seventh St., Columbia, MO 65203, or Praise Assembly of God Church, 4300 Clark Lane, Columbia, MO 65202.
Online condolences may be left for the family at parkerfuneralservice.com.
