Bennie Wayland Edmondson was born May 5, 1934 to George Mitchell Edmondson and Clara Arlene (Thomas) Edmondson in Cassville, Missouri. He went to join the Lord on May 18, 2022.

Ben was quiet and a good student. He was known as a nice boy who was involved in many sports and activities but who would never ask a girl for a date.  That changed in his Senior year at Midway High School when he met a new student named Lela Eubanks.  With a little help from her friends Lela engineered a plan to make Ben think it was his idea to ask to take her home from a party and she became the only girl he ever dated.

He loved growing up on a family farm and dreamed of having his own.  After graduating from high school in 1952 he enrolled at the University of Missouri to study agriculture, but the United States Air Force had other plans.  He was stationed in the Finance Office at the newly formed Air Force Academy in Denver, Colorado.  In 1955, he married Lela May Eubanks on Good Friday while he was on a weekend pass from the Air Force.

Ben eventually finished his degree in accounting at Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University). He and Lela lived in Colorado for the next twenty years before moving back to Missouri. They raised their family in Warrensburg while Ben served in the business office at University of Central Missouri.

Ben was known for his humility, honesty and willingness to serve.  He made the most of life by becoming a private pilot, driving sports car rally races, taking a jeep into the mountains, snow skiing and bass fishing all night (occasionally catching a fish).  He loved his family and enjoyed Boy Scout activities with his sons.  Ben was devoted to his wife Lela, enjoying adventures together early in their life, then serving and caring for her faithfully as her health declined.

Ben was preceded in death by his parents as well as his wife of 67 years, Lela Edmondson.

He is survived by his sister Anne (Edmondson) Barbour, his brothers George Edmondson and Gary Edmondson, his son Tom Edmondson, his wife Lori, and their children, Jonathan, his wife Bailey, and Julia; his son Terry Edmondson, his wife Christina, and their children MaKayla and Keirston; as well as several nieces and nephews.

Services will be at Northside Christian Church, Warrensburg, Missouri on Tuesday, May 31 beginning at 11:30 a.m., preceded by visitation at 10:30. Burial will follow in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery, Higginsville, Missouri.