Esther R. Munyon

Esther Rebecca Halfman was born on October 25, 1930 in Tribune, Kansas. She was raised in a sod house, with her brother John, and her sisters Marie, Mildred, Golda, and Doris. Notice the hand-cranked, wooden washing machine in the background of the photo posted in the gallery below.

Her mother, Anna Halfman, cooked food on a wood-burning stove, canned food in jars, hand-stitched clothing for the family, and was a "sod-buster" who broke the western Kansas sod behind two horses. A photo of Anna on a plow is in the gallery below.

In another photo below, you can see Esther holding a cat, next to two of her sisters, Doris and Golda. Esther told her sons that the dresses they were wearing were hand-sewn by her mother, from flour and feed bags, which came with printed patterns so they could be used as clothing material.

Esther Halfman attended the Greeley County schools. She began her schooling at 4 years of age, and graduated from the Greeley County High School in May, 1947. Her graduation photo is in the gallery below.

For a time Esther worked in a cafe in Tribune, Kansas. She was a pleasant, attractive young woman who greeted and served local customers and people who were traveling through.

She met Stanley Louis Munyon, who traveled with a crew of laborers helping with the wheat harvest. Esther and Stanley married on October 10, 1948, when they were both 17 years old.  Their wedding photo is included in the gallery below.

They had three sons: Stanley Stephen Munyon, born March 21, 1951; Timothy Lewis Munyon, born April 24, 1952, and James Lee Munyon, born March 30, 1955. Esther raised her three sons as a pastor's wife, necessarily finding ways to be frugal, such as sewing their shirts from patterns purchased from the Sears catalog, using a Kenmore (Sears) sewing machine. 

After her sons were mostly raised, she found a job at the C.A. Norgren pneumatics plant in Littleton, Colorado, where she worked in the bookkeeping and payroll department until she retired.

Esther Munyon passed away at 3:59 PM on March 12, 2023, at the age of 92. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Anna Halfman, her husband Stanley, her brother John, and her sisters Marie, Mildred, Golda, and Doris. She is survived by her sons Timothy and James, her grandchildren Mark Munyon and Sheila Huseman, and her great-grandchildren Aubrey and Grayson Huseman.

Her remains will be interred at the Forest Hill cemetery near Ashton, Kansas, south of Wichita.

Her memorial service will be live streamed, and the link will be included below, next to the service time once it is avaliable.

The family asks that instead of sending flowers, those who are willing may make a modest donation in her name to:

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