Edna Christine "Chris" Fox, age 85 of Springfield, passed away on October 1, 2019.

She was born in Geuda Springs, Kansas, on the family farm.  She attended Rainbow Bend, a one room school (K-8) built by an oil company for the local employees' children.  Later, she attended and graduated from Winfield High School.  She did well in school and attended Ottawa University in Kansas then Syracuse University in New York for her Masters of Science degree.  She attended both schools on full scholarships.  Chris taught briefly in Yates Center, Kansas, before taking a civil service position to teach American military dependents in Germany.  In 1961, she was approached by Sgt. Ed Fox on a golf driving range and it was all over from there!  They married in November, on Veterans Day.  Their one-month honeymoon included a tour of Europe, and they slept in "tiny houses" built between the rows of grapevines in Italy for several nights.  Chris gave birth to her son Mark before crossing the Atlantic by ship to return to the States.  Chris was pregnant with her daughter Debbie when they moved to Springfield.  She was quickly picked up by Springfield Public Schools.  While living in Springfield she also received her Masters in Library Science degree.  November 11, 2019 would have been their 58th wedding anniversary.

Chris was a life member of the National Education Association (NEA).  She taught life science for many years at Jarrett Junior High School.  Family was very important and one week each summer was dedicated to the JT Holman Reunion. Chris made sure every family vacation was educational.  Chris and Ed also visited their brothers and sisters when they took Mark and Debbie to Organ Pipe and Dinosaur National Monuments, the Grand Canyon and Kaibab National Forrest, Steamboat Rock and Yellowstone out west, and the Great Lakes and Boundary Waters along the Canadian border up north.  During the 1976 Bicentennial she took her family to all thirteen original colony states for their bicentennial celebrations ending in Washington D.C., laying on a blanket in the National Mall watching the National Fireworks display!  Their trips were oriented so Mark and Debbie would learn something about this beautiful country and could spend time with their aunts, uncles and cousins.  Chris and Ed continued to travel after their children were grown as volunteers for the Forrest Service and were campground hosts in the summers.  Even though Chris traveled extensively she always had time to help family and friends whenever they were sick and needed help.  She did her best to support her sister Dorothy through her battle with cancer and her sister Della with her battle with diabetes.  She did all this even as she cared for her own daughter who has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Chris loved games and is now playing; dominoes, cribbage, wahoo, jenga, spades and kings in the corner with her aunts and uncles, her parents Orville "O.B." and Pauline Holman, her brother's and sister's; Jim, Della, Ben, Dorothy, and her niece Katherine. When they get tired of those games, they'll switch to chicken foot, Uno or Gin Rummy!  She leaves her husband Sgt. Ed Fox retired, and her daughter Debbie to find a new game partner (volunteers are welcome!) and her son Mark (Debra), her grandchildren Eric and Morgan, and her other nieces and nephews and their children.

Visitation will be held this Friday, October 4, 2019 from 7 - 8PM, at Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home, 1947 E. Seminole, Springfield, MO 65804.  Please feel free to bring your memories of Chris and any pictures you would like to share.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association https://alz.org/greatermissouri?set=1 and Wreaths for Fallen Heroes at WreathsforFallenHeroes.org , who will be placing wreaths in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery where she will be interred.