Family celebrates 50 years of Easter tradition

By Ashley Luthans

In 1974, 6-month-old Erin Willoughby celebrated her first Easter by shining on the front page of the St. Joseph News-Press in a homemade bunny costume. Fifty years later, the bunny costume has become a staple of the family’s Easter celebrations.

The costume was made by Willoughby’s great-aunt, Betty Osburn. Gary Redden, Willoughby’s father, said that after Osburn had made the suit, she proudly called News-Press to encourage them to photograph and showcase Willoughby on her first Easter. 

“What’s unique about Aunt Betty, she was very bold,” Redden said. “She made the suit, and she said, she called the News-Press and she said, ‘Listen, the cutest baby in St. Joe has a bunny suit and you need to come down and take her picture and put her on the front page of the News-Press.’ And so, whoever she talked with said, ‘Yeah, we can do that.’ So they came down and Linda, my wife, and Erin were on the front page of the newspaper for that Easter Sunday morning edition.”

Redden is happy to continue this tradition as often as possible.

“Sometimes a holiday doesn’t seem complete unless you’ve done certain things,” Redden said. “So this has been one of the things that we have really strived to do every year that we can.”

The costume has been worn by Redden’s grandchildren, nieces, nephews and family friends.

This Easter, a new child donned the costume: Redden’s great-niece, Ada Dawn Annigian, the daughter of Kyle and Brittany Annigian.