Joy Forster Crawford Birdwell

Joy Forster Crawford Birdwell, 93, of Natoma, Kansas, went to her heavenly home on May 28, 2023. She was the youngest of 11 children born to Ray and Livona Dudley Forster, on August 27, 1929, in Cawker City, Kansas.

When Joy was a young child during the Dirty '30s, she was overcome with dust pneumonia and recovered by God’s grace.

During this time, the family moved to Kirwin and she attended school in Glen Elder until her sophomore year when her father went to work in the Navy Yard during WWII at Port Orchard, Washington. It was here that Joy met her future husband. She came back to Kansas during her junior year of high school.

Joy gave her heart to Jesus at nine years of age at a Christian Church and went forward for salvation to the hymn, “Just As I Am." That hymn remained a favorite for the rest of her life.

She graduated from high school in Glen Elder, got her teaching certificate, and taught grades 1-8 in a country school seven miles north of Gorham for one year. She taught grades 4-6 in Ionia the following year. Then the guy she met in Washington, George Crawford, became her husband.

The couple moved to Natoma in 1957. To this union were born five children. After George died in an oil field accident in 1987, Joy met and ma rried Bob Birdwell on September 9, 1989. They were married for 33 years. They loved Colorado and built a cabin in Red Feather Lakes, where they lived for 24 years. Their home was the vacation spot for most of the family.

Grandma Joy always had a spirit of ADVENTURE, loved to travel, and taught the “Grands” how to enJOY life. They played many games of rummy, dominoes, Mexican Train, and Rook. The most important lesson she taught during those games was how to lose!  

She had a quick sense of words and was a whiz with crossword puzzles. She was clever and enjoyed a good poem, rhyme, or limerick. She always loved books, especially the Bible, and read them through every year.

She taught them to fish and shared her love of hiking, picnics, and nature. On her 70th birthday, she became the proud owner of her first ATV. She was so pleased when the family came to ride the trails with her in the Rockies.

Joy was preceded in death by her husband, George Crawford; all 10 Forster family siblings: George, Carmen, Gertie, Mildred, Dudley, Irene, Dot, Betty, Jim, and Margie; and a grandson Justin Crawford.

She is survived by her husband, Robert Birdwell of Natoma; children: Steve Crawford of West Virginia, Julie Fulks and husband Steve of Natoma, Greg Crawford of Zurich, Jeff Crawford and wife Linda of Natoma, Karla Crawford of Natoma; Steve Birdwell of San Bruno, California, Shara Birdwell Brinkley of Phoenix, Arizona, Sandy Birdwell Kersting and husband Dave of Papillion, Nebraska, and Bob Birdwell and wife Karen of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Together Bob and Joy have nine children, 22 grandchildren, and 32 and counting great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild and counting.

The Funeral Service was held Thursday, June 1, 2023, at 11:00 a.m., at the United Methodist Church in Natoma.