Ada Osborn Crawford

Ada Harriet Crawford (nee Osborn) passed away on November 23, 2014 in Sacramento, California where she had recently moved. She was born in the tiny, rural town of Salina, UT on September 9, 1915. After the death of her father, Robert Osborn, Ada and her mother, Joyce Heath Osborn, went to work for the Mountain Bell telephone company in Salina to support four other siblings, Lee, Eva, Dan, and Rex. Her mother managed the operation while Ada worked as a switchboard operator after school. When her mother remarried Charles Ferguson a few years later, Ada went to business college in Salt Lake City. She learned the office management skills that would serve her later in life. Returning to Salina, Ada went back to work at the telephone company where she often patched through calls to the CCC camp (Civilian Conservation Corps) that had recently begun work outside of town. The man at the camp who usually took the calls had a particularly nice voice, and as it turned out, was a particularly handsome, 6 foot 7 inch tall, red-headed young man from Mississippi -- Melvin (Red) Crawford. The two finally met in person, fell in love, married, and moved to Montgomery, Alabama where Red worked and where they had a son, Charles. As the Second World War began, work became plentiful in aircraft factories in Southern California. Ada and Red, along with her sister Eva and brother-in-law Bill and younger brother Dan, all moved to Los Angeles for jobs. While working at North American Aircraft Red and Ada lived in a small duplex in what is now called the Florence area of LA. Their daughter Patricia was born and they remained in Los Angeles until 1956. They then moved to the City of Orange and Red worked for Buhler Tank & Welding Works. When her children were older, Ada also began work for Buhler as a payroll supervisor. She remained in Orange after Red's death in 2011, and later moved to Sacramento to be near her son and his family. In addition to watching her hometown baseball team, the Angels, Ada read voraciously, and was especially fond of the western and detective genres. Ada dearly loved her family, grandchildren Jeneane and Colin, and great-grandchildren, Asa, Owen and Cameron. Also her niece Joyce who predeceased her. Although she enjoyed the California climate, she expressed a longing to return to her beloved home in Salina. She will be buried in Salina where a grave side memorial service is planned. Graveside services will be held at 12:00 Noon on Monday, October 12, 2015 in the Salina Eastside Cemetery under the care of the Springer Turner Funeral Home of Richfield and Salina, Utah