In the early hours of Saturday morning, Ed Garner passed away peacefully at the family farm…the land he cherished deeply… a place woven into the Garner story for generations. The sky above was blanketed in stars. If you knew Dr. Ed, you know there was no sight that brought him more joy. In the most fitting way, he left this world as he would have wanted…on land he loved, under a sky full of stars, completely surrounded by the people who meant everything to him.
Born in Lubbock, Texas, to John and Doris Garner, Eddie spent his early years in Tyler, Texas. In 1963, the family moved to Stephenville where his dad began teaching math at Tarleton State College. Summers were spent on the family farm in Trigger Mountain digging post holes, killing mesquites, and hauling hay. Fall brought football and less-tasking activities at Stephenville High School where Eddie started dating his high school sweetheart Suzan Smith and served as Student Council President. Tarleton was the easy choice for college where he majored in Math and Chemistry, pledged and led Los Cobbs, cheered as a Purple Poo, served as Student Council Vice-President, and was selected as Mr. TSC. Later he was recognized as an Outstanding Young Alumni.
In 1973, Ed married Suzan and embarked on his lifetime career as a family physician at the newly-founded Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth. After 2 1/2 years of intensive studies (in a renovated bowling alley on Camp Bowie),  Ed was glad to practice clinical skills from Arizona to Alaska to Pennsylvania to the Rio Grande Valley to the Gulf Coast and back to Fort Worth for graduation where he was recognized as the 1977 Undergraduate General Practitioner of the Year. After his internship in Bay City, Michigan, during The Blizzard of 1978, Dr. Ed started his practice on his 27th birthday at the Comanche Medical Clinic. He delivered his four children in Comanche and often bartered office visits for cakes, watermelons, fence-building, etc. One couple offered a Schnauzer puppy in exchange for a home baby delivery…the dog was so feisty that Ed later returned it and said they owed him nothing.
In 1987,  Dr. Ed moved his family and practice down to Groves, Texas, at Doctors Hospital where he was recognized several times as Physician of the Year. In 2004 he began designing and building his retirement home on the family homestead in Mills County, but decided he missed doctoring. He joined the staff at Cross Timbers in Brownwood and then finished his career out in Van Horn, Texas. In 2019 he was the physician featured “in the medical desert of rural America” in the WASHINGTON POST. Dr. Ed was always available to listen to his patients and always happy to serve whenever the hospital, city or county needed a medical director or advisor. Blue Origin offered him a unique opportunity on their emergency response team while he was out in West Texas.
Ed’s sanctuary was the out-of-doors…whether soaring high over the clouds in his Mooney plane or scuba diving deep among coral reefs. White water river rafting became a favorite while working summers at Anderson Camps in Gypsum, Colorado. As rafting director at Hill Top Ranch for Girls, he led overnight trips down the Colorado, Green, and Yampa Rivers with the girls. Grand Canyon rafting trips with friends and family were highlights. Ed instilled his love for nature and adventure in his children.
Throughout his life, scouting played an integral part of his life. Ed progressed from Wolf to Eagle Scout and went on to be his sons’ Cubmaster and Scoutmaster. He was a camper and counselor at Camp Billy Gibbons on Brady Creek where he was inducted into the Otena Lodge of Order of the Arrow and achieved the highest honor of Vigil. With his sons he trekked Philmont and attended the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Virginia. Ed served as President of the Comanche Trail Council and was awarded the Silver Beaver in 1984.
Dr. Ed is survived by his wife of 53 years, Suzan Smith Garner and his four children with their spouses:  Will Garner and Andres Araiza, Chet Garner and Laura, Molly Kacal and Matthew, and Jenny Bromonsky and Aric. He took great delight in his twelve grandchildren: Brayden, Avery, and Eliza Bromonsky; Fielding, Wren, Cannan, Laurel, and Shepherd Garner; Mariel, Mya, Macee, and Miles Kacal. The oldest of six children, Ed is survived by his sister Ann DeJong and his brothers David, Dan and Stephen Garner. He will be missed by numerous in-laws, cousins, nieces, and nephews. Ed was proceeded in death by his parents and youngest brother Gary Garner.
Special thanks go out to Solaris Hospice personnel who cared for Ed at his home, especially Aide Myranda and Nurse Pilar.
Visitation with the family will be Wednesday, May 20th, from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at Stacy-Wilkins Chapel in Goldthwaite. Ed’s celebration of life will be Thursday, May 21st, at 10:00 am in the sanctuary of Goldthwaite First Methodist Church with Pastor George Price leading. Interment will follow at Trigger Mountain Cemetery on FM 1029 N, Mullin, TX.
Pallbearers will be his grandsons Brayden Bromonsky, Fielding and Shepherd Garner, and Miles Kacal and his nephews Jake Garner, Eric, Dustin and Cheyne Stephen, Cory Smith, Andy and Lane Mills, and Brett and Brady Dove.
The service will be live streamed at www.fmcgoldthwaite.org
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Friends of Camp Billy Gibbons, c/o Texas Trails Council, 3911 N 1st St, Abilene, TX 79603, or the church or charity off your choice.