Zelma Jean Eidson

Zelma Jean Scott Eidson, 72, of Odessa, Texas, passed away early in the morning on January 17, 2026. Born in October of 1953 in Odessa, she was the youngest of four children, and lived every bit of that stereotype until her last breath. Feisty. Stubborn. Full of life. She loved attention, never backed down from a good argument, and may have had a slight flair for the dramatic, though she would explicitly deny it (with dramatic emphasis).

To her grandchildren, she was Mimi. To her friends, she was family. To all who knew her, she was unforgettable.

As a young woman, Zee met Jesus Christ, and that introduction changed everything. This newfound love drove her to action. Alongside her husband Michael, she entered the domestic mission field in the seventies, and together they took the Gospel across the country, proclaiming it to hundreds, maybe thousands. They planted home churches and led believers not, just in what to believe, but in how to live it out loud, teaching them to be the hands and feet of Christ—to serve one another and love their communities well. It was this work that cultivated a calling to serve, and a sacrificial heart.

Despite life’s best attempts to subvert it, that calling never left her. It simply took new shapes.

Zee dreamed of having a giant house—not for her own comfort, but as an instrument for care. She achieved it in her own way. As a property manager at apartment complexes, she did far more than collect rent; she kept the peace. She helped people get back on their feet. She gave families a safe place to do life, and hosted incredible celebrations at the best pool in town! She became "Mom" to her tenants, and they became her people. She built her giant house one apartment at a time.

She instilled this heart for service in her two sons, her niece whom she helped raise, and everyone who got close enough to be changed by her. She would be the first to tell you that she wasn’t perfect (probably with a laugh and a wave of her hand). But, her life was marked by a deep, self-sacrificial love that she gave freely, often at great expense to herself. She loved hard, but she loved on purpose.

She had a saying she shared with everyone: "Be good, but if you can't be good, be good at it." Some might read that as permission to misbehave, but that's not what she meant. Being good was the command. There was no other option. And that's how she lived: imperfectly, but fully committed to doing good, even if there was a little bad mixed in to get there.

Scripture says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). That was Zee. You knew whose she was by how she loved.

She was preceded in death by her parents Faye and Hugh Mannan, her brother George “Butch” Scott, and one sister Kathy Tracey Tinsley. She is survived by her two sons, Scott (Shannon) and Garrett (Merilee); her niece, Teresa, and great-nieces Jillian and Kaylin; her seven grandchildren, Emily, Katy, Ian, Collin, Mason, Julia, and Brenton; her oldest sister, Beth (Gene), and their daughters Becky and Betsy; and the countless friends she made family along the way.

A funeral service will be held on February 6, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Odessa, Texas.

While her departure from this world is a great loss to us, it is gain to heaven. We celebrate her return to her Savior.