Funeral service for Edl Lee Foster, 78, Lawton will be at 1:30 pm Friday, October 9, 2015 in the Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. John Cramer, Retired Methodist Minister officiating. Burial will be in the Mt. Scott Intertribal Cemetery, North of Lawton. The family will greet friends from 5-7 pm Thursday at the funeral home. Edl Lee Foster was the fourth child and third daughter of Lee J. and Dorothy (Rowell) Rhoades. She was born January 31, 1937 in Lawton. After a heroic battle with cancer, she died in Lawton on October 6, 2015. She grew up in the Meers Community, attending rural elementary schools at Meers, Lakeview and Mt. Scott. She graduated from Elgin High School in 1953 following which she attended Cameron Junior College where she was active in the Ittanaha Indian Club. She then entered the University of Oklahoma School of Nursing, from which she graduated and was licensed as a registered nurse in 1957. She was one of nineteen American Indian students receiving scholarship support from the Board of Home Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches. Mrs. Foster enjoyed a long and successful career as a nurse, specializing in Psychiatric Nursing at Central State Hospital (now Griffin Memorial Hospital) in Norman, while her husband Billy Foster was a student at the University. She also worked at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa, Tulsa Public Schools, the "Old" Southwestern Hospital and the Jim Taliaferro Community Health Center in Lawton. She retired in 2000. She married Billy Gordon Foster at the chapel at Holy City in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Reserve on April 27, 1957. They had three children, Gordon Lee Foster, Gretchen LaRue Foster and Kristan Edl Foster. The young and growing family greatly enjoyed camping and travel throughout the United States including an extended stay in Alaska. Mrs. Foster enjoyed visiting local museums, particularly those with American Indian materials and exhibits. The family moved to Meers Community in 1968. In addition to her nursing work in Lawton, Mrs. Foster was very active in the Meers Community Association. Following retirement she enjoyed traveling and especially devoting time to her grandsons, Casey Gordon Foster and Matthew David Freeman. She enjoyed being involved with the Meers Chapter of the Oklahoma Home and Community Education Group. She regularly won awards for canning, baking, flower arrangement and other exhibits at the Comanche County Free Fair. She particularly enjoyed the many personal and professional friends she made over the years. Mrs. Foster was a member of the Kiowa Tribe, a descendant of Headsman "Grandpa" Jimmy Quoetone and Zoneetay, a sister to Kiowa Chief SunBoy. She was a lifetime member of the Mt. Scott Kiowa United Methodist Church where her grandmother Maud (Mahbonee) Rowell was a charter member. She is survived by her son Gordon Lee Foster and his fiancée Wendy Jo Billings, daughter Kristan Edl Foster, grandsons Casey Gordon Foster and Matthew David Freeman, brothers Everett Ronald Rhoades, James Earl Rhoades and Dustin Rowell Rhoades all of the Mt. Scott/Meers Community, and many beloved cousins, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Billy, daughter Gretchen LaRue Benavidez and two sisters, Eleanor (Rhoades) Kupke and Dorothy Lyzette (Rhoades) Farrow.