Esther Luella Bartlett, 93 of Merino, went home to be with the Lord on May 17, 2014.

Visitation will be held Thursday, May 22, 2014 from 10:00 to 4:00 at Chaney-Reager Funeral Home.

Funeral services will be held Friday, May 23, 2014 at 10:30 at the Nazarene Church in Sterling. Burial will follow at Riverside Cemetery.

Memorials in Esther's honor may be made to Buffalo Public Schools Foundation.

Esther, daughter of Ora Eleanor (Jones) and William Azel True, was born in Richland, Iowa on March 19, 1921.

She graduated from Richland High School in 1939. Esther worked for one year before attending Pasadena Nazarene College. She transferred to John Fletcher College in Oskaloosa, IA. She also attended the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley where she earned her lifetime teaching certificate for all grades.

Esther found great joy in teaching and touched the lives of every student she taught. Throughout her career, Mrs. Bartlett taught in Nampa, Idaho; Paonia; Hotchkiss; Merino; Atwood; and Sterling. She retired from teaching in 1988, but worked as a substitute teacher until 2010. She also spent the summers teaching at the Stoney Buttes Museum School and was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Sorority.

Esther met her husband Melvin Bartlett through television personality Ralph Edwards, who grew up in Merino. The couple was married on August 24, 1952.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Melvin, and sister Rev. Lois True.

Mrs. Bartlett is survived by her son Charles and wife Patty of Merino, daughter Eleanor and husband Darwin Jeffers of Haxtun, granddaughters Brenda and husband Brian Otteman of San Jose, CA, Sharon and husband Dustin Seger of Fleming, Stacey Bartlett and fiancé Joey Bellendir of Sterling, and grandson Andy Bartlett and wife Meagan of Fort Collins. She is also survived by five great-grandchildren: Brenna, Briana, Samantha, Seth, and Stellan.