Auda Costin

Auda Lucille (Wilkinson) Costin passed away Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at her daughter’s home with her loving family at her side.  She was born July 27, 1927 to Opal Viola (Warner) and Bertie Everett Wilkinson in Allendale, Missouri.  Auda graduated from Grant City High School in 1945 and headed to Corvallis, Oregon to meet her brother Park who was returning home after WWII ended. Park’s military orders were to be deployed again so Auda spent the next 3 years living in Corvallis with her Aunt Fay. She worked picking strawberries, then on the assembly line in a canning factory before becoming a housemother in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, University of Oregon in Corvallis. Auda shared lots of stories with her family about her time in Corvallis.

Auda returned to St Joseph, Missouri, living with brother Park & Dorothy while working at General Tire. Auda then moved back to Grant City and enjoyed her job at the ASC office working with local farmers, time with friends, and managing a local baseball team that her brothers and her soon to be husband played on. One of her favorite memories to share was contacting a traveling African American team to come to Allendale, MO to play ball, and what a game it was. 

On October 16, 1955, Auda was united in marriage to Edward Clay Costin in St. Joseph, Missouri and began her life’s work as a mother, homemaker, and farmwife. She raised her children and seldom missed taking them to Church on Sunday. She spent over 50 years teaching grade school Sunday School at the First Christian Church, watching young kids in the nursery during church time, preparing food for church functions, preparing Sunday morning communion, giving children sermons, helping with Vacation Bible School, later going back to her roots in the Baptist church, all while living her life to promote the teachings of Jesus. She always said people don’t need you to visit at the time of death, they need you 2 to 3 weeks later when everyone has gone and they are alone. She set that example for her family by visiting many friends, church and community families, sharing her love through her ability to cook, bake and spent time sharing God’s love in those weeks after the loss of a loved one.

Auda touched so many lives with her Godly love, selfless acts of kindness, and unfaltering faith. Auda was a member, President, and Scrapbook Chairman of Atheneum and Christian Women’s Fellowship. Auda shared her love of cooking & baking by teaching 4-H cooking to two generations of Worth County kids with lots of blue ribbons and state bound winners. Eddie very seldom flew overseas with the Air National Guard without a care package of baked goods from Auda for Worth County service men.

She gave heartfelt hugs and kisses with every hello and good-bye. She was a listening ear, had a gift for writing letters of comfort, guidance, and support to family members and friends. She spent hours sitting at sporting events, band and music performances, graduation and honors events to support her family and their friends, never missing an event, this continued on with her grandkids. She chased pigs and cattle, built fence, and ran the farm when Eddie was flying in the Air National Guard, all while raising her five kids and keeping them involved in 4-H, piano lessons, Rainbow for Girls, Boy Scouts, swim lessons, sports, marching band, and music.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, one daughter Fran (Costin) Frese, six brothers: Rex, Ray, Ralph, Ross, Russell and Park Wilkinson, infant sister Dorothy Wilkinson, sister-in-law’s: Lillie, Mary, Justine, Sally and Dorthy Wilkinson.  Left to cherish her memory are her children, Coleen (Kenneth) Mullock, Parnell, MO; Brenda (Craig) Lechman, Sterling, CO; Denett Costin, Kansas City, MO; and Ed Costin, Grant City, MO; son-in-law Rick Frese, Grant City, MO; grandchildren Dr. Dallas (Melissa) Mullock, DO, Maryville, MO; Whitney (Russell) Hamblen, Rosendale, MO; Erin (Brad) Moad, Rosendale, MO; Cody (Tonya) Mullock, Parnell, MO, Wyatt (Niya) Frese, Colorado Springs, CO; Ethan Frese, Lowell, MA , Preston Enninga, Sterling, CO; and Makaya (Garet) Davis, Wiggins, CO; Kate Carpenter, Savannah, MO; great-grandchildren Morgan, Dena and Sadie Mullock; Cooper, Rowdy and Oakley Hamblen; Brantley and Lucy Moad; Grayson, Carter and Emma Mullock; Camden and Kinley Enninga; Dawson and Brodie Davis; and Hunter and Hallie Carson; sister-in-law Betty Wilkinson, Maryville, MO; cousin, Raymond (Sandi) Weinberg, Omaha, NE; and many nieces, nephews and friends.

A graveside service and final resting will be at the Allendale Cemetery next to her husband.

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