Edna

Edna Chinberg Calabrese

Edna Marie Chinberg Calabrese was born on the family farm near Kanorado, Kansas on July 12, 1915. She was the youngest child of Henry and Rose Chinburg and their only daughter. (For reasons unknown, Edna changed the spelling of her last name.) From all accounts, she was a lonely child who had a vivid imagination and enjoyed school above all else. She attended a one-room school where children of all ages were taught together and finished high school at age 16.

We don’t have much information about Edna from the time she graduated from high school until her parents relocated to Boulder in 1945. What is known is that Edna was married during this period and had three children; two boys and a girl, one of whom died at an early age. The children all attended Whittier School and her youngest son, Ivan, became a trumpet player and music teacher. Sometime before her parents relocated to Boulder in 1945, Edna was divorced from her husband.

Edna’s father, Henry, had passed away June 20, 1963 and Edna moved into 1937 Spruce Street with her 82 year old mother, Ruby, on 1/4/1965. She married her long-time beau, Raymond Paul Calabrese, on December 12, 1965 and together they cared for Edna’s mother until her death April 30, 1966.

Edna signing her marriage certificate in the dining room
at 1937 Spruce Street.

Ray signing his marriage certificate in the dining room
at 1937 Spruce Street.

The Calabrese Wedding Party
December 12, 1965

Edna worked for the telephone company in Denver until 1987 and Ray worked at a large brick and block plant east of Boulder. Edna would take the bus to and from Denver and Ray would pick her up at the bus stop each evening. Not wanting Edna to have to cook when she came home, they would go out to eat – usually at the King’s Table (now the Country Buffet) in Longmont.

They went to church regularly and, like her mother, Edna enjoyed sewing and playing the organ. She was in the habit of reading aloud to Ray and keeping calendar notes of daily activities. Mundane as they were, the notations provide a glimpse of her daily life:

“Danny called, they got a pup”; “good news – mammogram clear – all tests normal – thank the Lord”; “sun out”; “mailed letters”; “laundry, home all day”; “snow”; “went to Leo’s Restaurant for lunch – food good, waitress not”; “the rhododendron gets more beautiful every day”; “half of the living room painted”; “called Marsha – wish I hadn’t”; “canned 21 pints of tomatoes”; “Ray covered porch rug – I picked pears – he mowed – I watered”.

And she wrote in her journal: “If anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had a stock answer for them. I wanted a home of my own, a good husband and children. I can see that I have realized all that.”

Edna died in 1994.