Vivienne Gose

Vivienne Elaine Gose passed from this life to step through the veil into the arms of her beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. Elaine was born in 1932 in Putnam, Oklahoma as the first child of Roger D. Hebard and Vivian Roberts Hebard. Since her father was a Baptist pastor, the family moved each time they were called to a new church. Elaine spent her childhood, joined by her sisters Carolyn Jane and Eloise Ann “Lou,” and her brother, Roger Duane, in parsonages in Harlingen and Denton, Texas and Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She graduated from Denton High School, active in music and theater, gaining the nickname, “Rosie,” because she was known for “seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.”

She attended North Texas State College, now the University of North Texas in Denton, and Oklahoma Baptist University. She graduated from Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State University, with a degree in teaching. She gained graduate hours in education from the University of Wyoming. She taught elementary school in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and in Brentwood, California. While she was a gifted teacher, loved by her students, her passion was for music. She studied bel canto voice with the legendary Madame Munya Cherniavsky, Larra Browning Henderson (University of Redlands), and Martial Singher, head of the voice department at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. She studied piano at the Music Academy of the West with Dr. Reginald Stewart, head of the piano department. She was extremely talented and skilled in music, enjoying her gifts of perfect pitch and improvisation.

Being an energetic person, rarely able to sit still, Elaine was continually active in women’s ministry, especially to widows and widowers. She used her musical skills as director of church music ministry at multiple churches through the years. She was also active in women’s service organizations, including PEO and DAR and women’s music organizations, including the Spinet Club (Redlands, CA). She decided to try her hand at the visual arts in the mid-1970s, and became a prolific artist, exploring multiple styles, techniques, and media and working under many different art teachers.

Her primary vocation was as a wife and mother. She met her future husband, Robert O. Gose, on a blind date she arranged at the request of the Sunday School director at First Baptist Bartlesville, where her father was then pastor. Although he was set-up with the other girl, she said she fell in love at first sight with Robert “over the cole-slaw” at the Sunday School picnic. She asked him if he would take her up in his airplane to help her get over her fear of flying. He always remembered the “snappy green suit” worn by the cute, freckled red head with twinkling green eyes. They dated until he took a leave from Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville to get his masters at Caltech as a university scholar. When he left, she said she didn’t know if she would ever see him again, but he called and proposed by phone. He returned the day before their wedding on December 22, 1954, and she returned with him to California to stand by him as he finished his master’s degree and began working with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Space Technology Laboratory (STL), and TRW’s Space Technology Division. Their first son was born in 1956, joined by a daughter in 1957. It was of utmost importance to Elaine to raise her children with an active faith and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and she never missed a “teachable moment” to do so.

Elaine’s was not a naïve faith. She weathered many challenges. The sudden loss of her only son was followed by time alone and isolated with her husband working overseas and her daughter away at college. During this “dark night of the soul,” her understanding of her beloved Lord deepened, and her faith remained unshaken. She touched many lives with her generous love and inclusiveness and was known for advocating for those who had little to no voice.

Elaine is preceded in death by her husband, Robert, and her son, Robert Verne Gose. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Carolyn and Paul, and their sons, Robert Christian, Joshua Allen, and Jonathan Michael Foster. Elaine will be buried alongside her husband at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.

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