My Legacy

It’s difficult to talk about my own strengths, but I think my greatest strength is probably my desire to serve my family and my husband, Because, really, that’s my greatest desire.  And, of course, I love serving my grandchildren too.  They’ve been a great blessing in our lives.  My mom said I was a peacemaker.  I don’t know if I feel like I fit that, but that’s how she describes me as one of her children.  So, I must have done somethings in the family to help things go smoothly.  But I don’t remember specifics, because when you’re involved – when it’s you – you don’t notice.   But that’s what she has said, so maybe I’m a peacemaker.  

There probably isn’t anything about me that my family needs to know, that they don’t know already.  But I can restate what is important to me.  The importance of returning to our Heavenly Father.  Keeping our lives pure and clean.  Strengthening our testimony.  Mainly I’d say that the Book of Mormon is one of the most important books that we can read.  It’s important to know a lot of things.  I have a lot of grandchildren that really like to read.  But I think it’s most important to be sure that we give equal time to our scriptures and developing our talents to serve other people and help where help is needed.   Because there is nothing more important in my life than service to my Heavenly Father and doing what I know we have been sent her to do.  And right now, I’m feeling insecure about missionary work because that’s one of the harder things to do.  We would like to go on mission, but at this point it’s not working out for us.  We’re still working to try to do that.  But I don’t think that’s a secret.  I don’t think I have any secrets.  I really don’t have any.  I do enjoy reading and I enjoy quiet time, which I haven’t had a lot of.  I don’t mind sitting in the car and reading, just to kind of stay with him while Lary does what he needs to do.  As we’ve grown older now and had an empty nest for a while, we just really like to be together.  I enjoy being with the grandkids and seeing their excitement and their talents.  

I enjoy having the kids come home with their spouses.  One of my little granddaughters came to visit this fall, and her daddy couldn’t come.  She said, “We can take some of grandma’s food home to daddy, he would like that.”  I have always had the bottled fruits, and I make bread all the time.  That’s one thing that usually turns out just fine- well, it always turns out just a little different.  But that’s one thing I’m fairly confident in and one thing I love to serve.  I know there are certain things they expect to eat when they come home.  And gathering around, we’ve always tried to have meals together, and I think that’s a special time.  We always had our family evening.  That’s another thing that was really important.  To me that’s one of the greatest things, having family time together.  I think the kids will always remember it.  You know, a lot of times you think you’re just keeping the kids separated – “You’re breathing MY air!” And it seems like their attention span is not so good, but they get the feeling, and they get the desire.  They do remember those times together.  

I have known that I have cancer since even before my brother LaMarr knew he was affected.  I should say that I feel that the Lord has totally been in charge of my life, because I was never really sick when I had children.  I never really had any hard deliveries to speak of, and I probably had this cancer for years, because it is latent a lot of times for many years.  And then, when you turn a certain age, sometimes it just raises its head, which in my case was about a year ago.  I was aware that I had it, and I was anemic some, but not to the point that I couldn’t live a normal life.  And I’m still not to the point that I can’t do things.  There are a lot of things I don’t do anyway – I was never one to run a race, or that kind of thing.  I’ve never been really physically active, other than doing the housework and things like that.  But I ‘ve always been able to do what I ‘ve needed to do, and I feel like I’m at that same point now.  I’m on a low dosage of chemo right now, but the doctor’s been really careful.  He watches my blood, and I take a blood count every week.  And if my counts drop too low he stops the chemo.  I think at this point we’re just maintaining, and I just feel like I get tired sometimes, but not in too much pain – I’m NOT in pain.  

I feel like the Lord is going to let me live for as long as he needs me to, so I’m not worrying about it much.  Worry does worse things.  I feel at peace with the situation.  Fear doesn’t creep into my world.  Just … sorrow maybe that I may not live till I’m 90.  But I think it’s OK.  I feel like the Lord will be merciful, and when my time to go comes, it will come.  Honestly, I sleep well, and I don’t feel like I’m in any dire circumstance at this point.  I’m trying to do everything the doctor feels is right, and he’s been very careful not to invade me with anything that’s harsh.  He’s been really good.  He says I’ve already outlived all the other people who have it., so I don’t know what’s going to happen.  I could live another ten years easily.  But we do have to treat it some at this point.  This kind of cancer attaches itself to the white blood cells.  But honestly, I’ve never felt like I have cancer.  So, I have it, but I haven’t had a lot of symptoms.  And now, with the low dose of chemo, I haven’t been sick, I haven’t been upset, I haven’t had sores in my mouth, or a rash, or anything like that.  I can only tell I have it from the blood tests.  I had to have two units of blood around July 24th because I’d been on chemo for three weeks and it dragged me down.  I could feel it then.  But now we’re back to only two pills a day and hopefully it will balance out, because the chemo did do what it was supposed to do, but too much too quick. 

In Her Own Words: Things That Matter Most

The most important thing in my life is my family and the gospel… of course.  It’s hard to divide them.  I can’t separate them.  I never really wanted to do anything but have a family and teach and raise my children.  I did have an experience where I felt like I was prompted.  We had 11 children; Kirsten was a baby.  I went to the mailbox – I remember being at the mailbox – and getting a letter from Saudi Arabia, and in that letter, John Dilley asked if his son Brett could come live with us.  We hadn’t been that close as friends for a few years since they left.  They had lived in our area some, but then had moved to two or three other places after that and then gone to Saudi Arabia.  So, this request was completely unexpected.  I just had that feeling wash over me; that it’s the right thing to do.  I still remember opening the letter, reading the letter, and how I felt.  I felt like that was probably a personal revelation to me, that it was something I needed to do, and that I could do it.  Lary felt the same way, but the decision was really a lot up to me, because I was the one who’d have to do the feeding and the laundry, etc.  It was probably a little difficult for the kids to always have company, because that’s what it felt like for a while.  But he gradually fit in really well.  At first, he didn’t, but he related well to the younger children, and they really enjoyed it.  We have lots of dear fond memories, and I feel like I was very blessed in many ways for that.  It seemed like I had enough energy to do everything I needed to do.  You know, that’s a lot of kids to take care of and a lot of laundry to do!  I remember laundry being an issue because they played football and won state football one year.  So, they all wanted their football shirts clean and didn’t want to lose them.  They’d put labels in them, and in all their clothes and it was quite a deal to get that much laundry done.  And to take care of all the younger kids too!  We had six boys, and they weren’t just quiet little boys either.  But they were GOOD!  And, you know, if we had challenges, that’s another lesson I learned: That you really had to be thankful for problems and solve those problems when their young, in their early years, because it’s how you handle those kinds of things that makes them what they become later.  Oh, if I had to go to the school to take care of a problem, ultimately, I was embarrassed.  But I was happy to have the experience because that opens up the communication with your child, and it helps you understand what you need to work on.  It wasn’t smooth all the time.  

I hope I was a spiritual example because I loved to serve in the church as well.  I had the opportunity to serve in many organizations of the church in many capacities.  I saw all my boys receive their Eagle Scout Award.  I feel like my opportunity to completely help and love and teach my children was what my role was, and what I wanted it to be.  I hope I was a good wife along with that.  You know it divides your time, but I never felt it was divided with worldly things.  That’s where my place was, that’s what my role was.  I was absolutely happy there.  I never wished to do anything else.  It’s what I wanted and what I did. 

My proudest moment would have been our youngest daughter’s wedding, and she told EVERYBODY that they had to be there.  She had sat outside for every other temple wedding, and she said, “You ALL have to be at MY wedding!”  She was married in November, and everyone was there.  To me that’s the most important thing – having my entire family together there in the Temple.  All the kids and all their spouses were there.  Probably we won’t achieve a moment like that again.  That was a BIG deal, because we had kids spread out all over the country.  But I have to say that’s the proudest day of my life; having our family all together in the Temple.  

 

The funniest thing that every happened to me was when I made two pies for LeeRen on his birthday.  I had Kira and Kirsten in the car with me taking them over.  We had this car that stopped sometimes, and it died on the way over.  So, I got out to do whatever I needed to do with the battery, and when I got out Kira had stuck one of the pies on the driver’s seat, because she got out too.  So, when I got back in the car I sat on the pie!  There I was with pie all over me.  But there was a ditch there, so I got back out and washed myself off in the ditch!  I still gave LeeRen pie.  He definitely got the other pie, the good one, but I don’t think I gave him the one I sat in. 

In Her Own Words: People Who Affected My Life

My voice teacher, who was also my high school music teacher and also my bishop, was such a great mentor for me.  I felt like learning the control and the discipline of the music was probably one of the biggest influences in my life.  And I loved my seminary class too.  That’s where I learned the gospel.  We had discussions at home, but I remember being in seminary for all four years.  Moyle Brown was my voice teacher, and Frank Robertson was my seminary teacher.  They were both great influences in my life.  I remember a lot of the lessons and the circumstances from right when I was in seminary.  I had to wait on a corner to ride with somebody else to seminary, because remember, we lived eight miles out of town.  So, I’d ride with my dad going to work to the county line road where he’d drop me off.  Then I’d ride with my neighbors to seminary.  And it was dark most of the time.  

My family.  I was very close to LaMarr.  I felt like we learned a lot of things together.  And even though he was four years older, I was mature for my age, so we spent a lot of time together.  Mostly I stayed within my family.  But I did have some girlfriends.  One of my friends was heavily involved in music with me all through high school.  I played the piano in Sunday School and Mutual, and so did she, and we’d trade back and forth.  So even though we were kind of in competition we were still good friends.  Charlotte Myers was her name.  She was the one who was playing for me when the page got backwards.  We just love LeeRen and Beverly, Wendell and Jean, and LaMarr and Daleen.  We haven’t had a lot of other friends.  We had some good friends that we still communicate with, but our best friends have always been those brothers and sisters and their spouses.  We have stayed close with Lary’s cousins as well.  But we’ve pretty much stayed with the family, and we’ve enjoyed it a lot. 

In Her Own Words: Married Life

Married Life

Lary graduated from Marsing High School, and then went on his mission.  His parents moved to Weiser while he was on his mission, and they had a picture of him on the board at church, and I …. Studied that like any teenage girl would.  This was at the Stake Center in Weiser.  Our two families attended the same Stake Center when that was necessary.  He came home in July of 1962 and I had just been crowned Miss Payette County in June, right after I graduated.  He served a two-and-a-half-year mission in Norway.  We met in August at a fireside in New Plymouth.  He came with his brother Wendell, and they got there right after I sang, which I was glad for – they were late – he never heard me sing.  Wendell had actually taken me to a church dance, and I didn’t know he had another girlfriend, so I would have been interested in either of them.  But he DID have another girlfriend, and he said he was “saving me for Lary.”  Wendell introduced me to Lary and we spent some time talking that night, and he was always blushing – he always did; he was very shy, but he’s gotten over that.  We both knew we’d be going down to BYU.  We really didn’t date before we left for BYU.  He asked me to ride home with him after a church dance one time.  Then we left soon after that to go to college, so we didn’t have an official date yet.  But we both ended up at BYU.  One day I walked home down the stairs by the Botany Pond.  I lived on 6th North in Provo.  I decided to take a different way home by the pond, and he and his uncle, Bernie Parckard, who was the same age, were together and drove up alongside me.  They tried to get my attention, but it was my second or third day on campus, and I was NOT looking at someone who was trying to get my attention from a CAR!  Finally, he said my name to get me to look at them, and they picked me up and took me home.  That was only two days after we got there.  Then he invited me to the dance they had out on the tennis courts on campus.  

We dated off and on, and he was also dating some other girls, but our first official date was the dance on the tennis courts.  Oh, he’d study with some other girl and then he’d come and get me … he even called me the wrong name one time.  He later said he was just testing me to see how I’d take it, but I knew that wasn’t true.  I did date some other boys, but I didn’t date too much.  I had a boyfriend that was on a mission, but he came home, and I didn’t even date him once.  That was RUDE!  He came to my door to ask me out, but I like Lary, so … it was over.  

It was probably in December or January that we started getting serious and more exclusive with each other.  Lary’s brother was killed in a truck accident, and I went home to the funeral.  I felt comfortable with Lary right away because I had known his family before I ever met him.  I always really respected his family, and I saw a lot of good things in his family that I wanted to be a [part of my family too. We were engaged in March and we went on a tour in California with the BYU Oratorio Choir.  It was a big deal for me.  I had never been to California – I was just a little town girl.  We went on a bus to San Francisco and we sang in two or three different locations, but I don’t remember exactly where.  The big city was just amazing.  Boise wasn’t even very big then.  But my mind was on other things.  I was newly engaged, and I wasn’t really looking at the big city.  But I enjoyed the music and the opportunity to perform there.  

Oh, it was exciting when Lary asked me to marry him.  He invited me to go to Salt Lake to have dinner with a Norwegian couple.  Before the dinner hour we were walking around on the Temple Square.  There used to an old log cabin there where the fountain is now.  We were standing there looking at the temple and he asked me to marry him.  And I said YES!  No hesitation there.  We’d known each other long enough and I felt quite good about that.  He’d told me we were going to meet the Norwegian couple, but there never was another couple in his plans for that night.  So, he took me to dinner across the street at the Sky Room on the top floor of the Hotel Utah.  We set the date for July 23rd, which probably could have been a better date, because all the time we had the 24th of July celebrations jumbling up our anniversary plans.  But it was good.  That summer before we got married, I competed in the Miss Idaho Pageant.  I didn’t win – and I didn’t; really want to because, again my mind was occupied with other things! 

We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple, and his next to the youngest sister was born a week later.  That was interesting because his parents didn’t come to the wedding.  But his mom was that far along with their 12th child, so she couldn’t travel.  I was 19 when we were married, he was 23.  That summer, before we got married, he took a job in Moses lake, Washington driving combine and made $300.  He just got home the morning we left and went over to the temple to get married, and that was the money we started life out with.  We spent it on our honeymoon.  We went to Yellowstone Park, and then went back and had a wedding reception.  Then we went out to Portland and down the coast all the way into Tijuana, Mexico.  All on Highway One, the road that goes along the ocean.  The trip took about 10 days, and we did it all – the hotels, the gas, the food, for less than $300.  Yes, life has changed!  When we got back to Provo, we had 35 dollars left, and that covered the first month’s rent.  Then he hurried and went and earned some more money.  It was enough to pay the deposits or whatever needs we had right then.  He worked at the Geneva Steel plant where they were tearing down some towers, so that’s what he and his Uncle Bernie did – they tore things down!  Lary was going to BYU and earned enough money to pay his tuition and get started in school.  I didn’t go to school.  I worked at a five and dime store downtown in Provo.  He worked at the Cannon Center too, doing the food.  Sometimes he’d get up at 4:00 in the morning to go do the breakfast, and then he’d go to school.  He was always a diligent worker and studier.  He did a good job in school.  We came back to Weiser for the summer and our first child was born in August.  We stayed in Idaho, and he did logging in the winter.  Crazy big challenge for him.  We lived in Cambridge in the wintertime and then went back to school in January.  In Provo we lived above the Wash Hut.  It used to be a grocery store; then they made it into a Laundromat.  It was quite an inconvenient apartment.  You’d go up the stairs to get in it, but that’s what you get for 35 dollars a month, so you don’t complain.  It was on a busy street – right on the corner of 4th East and 6th North.  

Looking back on those early married days, I feel like we had less challenges then than we do now.  We always have just tried to enjoy life at the stage we’re in, and we had two children when he graduated in 1966 .  And then… we went back to Idaho to farm.  We stayed there for two years, and then he went to law school in February of 1968.  He started in Texas, and that’s another real story.  We went there because that was the only school that would let him start at that time of year, after the crops were in.  They accepted freshmen both fall and winter.  So we moved to Houston to South Texas College of Law.  I was very busy raising three kids by then.  LaReesa was born in 1967.  He went to summer school while he was there because we didn’t have to be to Moscow until September for their law school classes.  Probably our biggest trial was automobiles and transporting that far with three little kids.  On the way to Texas our youngest was sick, so we stopped and got medicine on the way.  But eventually, in May, she ended up in the hospital with viral pneumonia.  That was Lary’s first week of law school finals.  So, the trials did start.  One of us had to be with her all the time, so I would stay with her in the daytime and he would find babysitters, or do it other times and take his tests, and we somehow worked it out.  LaReesa was in the hospital for a week.  She was only 10 months old.  We didn’t have insurance.  We actually had a nurse that had compassion on us, because we didn’t have anything but a car, and it wasn’t a very good one.  She somehow finagled to get her admitted as a birth defect case, which was probably not legal, but she had been sick for two or three months.  And we both couldn’t go to sleep during the night because she had trouble breathing sometimes.  So, this was the first miracle in our married lives, because she had one lung full and the other was filling up.   There was a complex of hospitals in the Houston area, and the first one we went to was closed.  There was a drive up window and they said, “Sorry, we’re closed, you’ll need to go to Texas Children’s Hospital.”  We didn’t know it then, but that’s exactly where we need to go to ger the exact help we needed.  The lady who admitted us knew our circumstances because she’d asked us all these questions and she just did the paperwork as if it was a birth defect.  So, we ended up paying five dollars a month for a year and that was it!  It was just amazing.  We’ve thought about that a lot.  She just told us to donate sometime to the Texas Children’s Hospital as we can.  Now, if that’s not a miracle – I don’t know – It’s and amazing thing.  LaReesa had a little trouble down the road with breathing sometimes.  One morning I had to take her to the hospital and the doctor said, “I think she has an allergy to the bacteria that built up in her system when she’d begin to catch a cold.”  So, we were able to clear up the problem.  She’s had a very healthy life.  

In Her Own Words: The Early Years

The Early Years

I was born on April 6, 1944 in Pocatello, Idaho. I am the third child of Glen & Verla Woodbury Kofoed.  At the time I was born, our family lived in Lava Hot Springs.  My family eventually moved to Wilder, Idaho, onto a fruit ranch where my dad took over running the ranch. Wilder is just before you go down the hill to Homed. It is in the valley along the Snake River.  I do not go there very often, but I do remember being in the fruit orchard with my dad and being out in the barn when they hauled hay.  I remember my dad would spray out in the orchard, and I don’t think we were all as cautious as we could have been, knowing what we know now.  But I did spend time out there in the orchard with my brother.  I remember our home there.  We didn’t have running water—we had to go out and pump it to the house, so it was an older home.  We lived right down on the river; it was just down the hill—the Snake River. And I remember people coming to fish.  I remember two men that caught a sturgeon that was about… well, it was as tall as they were when they held it up! So, I do have quit a few memories from there. 

As young kids we just played outside a lot. We didn’t have TV or anything like that, so we spent a lot of time outside.  I remember we had a swing in one of our trees and we also had a mulberry tree in the yard.  Of course, we had an outside toilet since we didn’t have plumbing in the house.  We also had two horses. We did have a tractor, but we also had the horses that would pull when we brought in the hay.  Do you a know what a Jackson Fork is?  We would hook the hay with a Jackson Fork to pull it in.  So, I spent a lot of time outside doing whatever my dad and my brothers were doing.  I also spent time helping my mom.  This was all before I went to school.  My grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis and lived with us part of that time when we were in Wilder.  I remember doing dishes and having her help me dry the silverware.  I think that’s an interesting thing to remember at an early age we had a wood stove to heat the water and no inside toilet, so wintertime was no fun!  I also remember having a home teacher at that age. It’s kind of interesting but that home teacher’s granddaughter is our state relief society president now, and I’m a counselor to her.  To remember home teacher from that age, I was about five, he must have been a great home teacher!

Normally we only had one car.  It was a 1937 Chevy.  I remember because of Lary’s interest in it – he had a 1939 Ford.  Our car was a 4 door.  Part of the reason I know that is because we went on a trip for a family reunion back to Lava Hot Springs.  The doors on that car opened opposite each other front to back, and I leaned on the door handle and fell out while the car was moving.  I survived the experience.  We were just between Mountain Home and Boise.  It kind of slowed us down on our trip!  I fell into the barrow pit and I know for a month my mother was taking blisters out of my head when she washed my hair.  I think it could have been the end of my life had the Lord not preserved me.  We went to a doctor in Mountain Home, and he said I had a concussion, and they actually kept me in the hospital overnight.  But my dad found the bishop, and they came and gave me a blessing.  The next morning when the doctor came to check me, he said, “You know, I can’t find any signs of anything.  She seems to feel fine, so I guess you can just go ahead and leave.”  I believe that was the first healing that I had in my life.  And then we just headed to our family reunion.  I was maybe two and a half or three when this happened.  I remember being told about it and that’s partly how I remember what car we had.  My parents bought a lock, screwed it in, and made it so the door wouldn’t open unless it was opened from the outside.  But when it happened, my brother just said, “Marianne’s gone!”  Of course, my dad didn’t drive very fast.  My mom always said he went the same speed around the corner that he did down the road.  There were no freeways then, it was the old road that went through all the towns.  Well, that was a major experience that happened that I don’t really remember that well, but I was told about it.  I DO remember the blisters and her taking them out of my hair, so I do remember some parts of it.  

I started school in the Arena Valley grade school, which is out towards Roswell, just a little farming area, and still quite old style, there’s not a lot of new development there.  We had a little two room school, and my brother LaMarr and sister Leola were also in school with me.  I went there till December, and then we moved to New Plymouth, Idaho.  I don’t think the school I went to in the Arena Valley is there anymore, but they had a lot of community activities in the big park across the street from the school, and I remember going to a lot of those at the end of the school year.  We actually walked to school, which was about two and a half miles.  Leola is seven years older than me, and LaMarr is four years older.  We had nine children in our family, and my mother always wanted nine children.  So, she persevered until she had all of us, me and my four sisters and four brothers.  My brother LaMarr and I were close, even though we were four years apart; we were good friends.  I was probably closer to him than my other siblings.  My sister Karla was four years younger, so I had a kind of strange situation in that there were four years before me and four years after me between kids, so I went to high school alone.  Even though I was sort of isolated there in the middle, I never felt alone when I was young.  But when it came time for high school, I realized I was closer to my older brother and sister, and I missed having them around.  It was just interesting how our family was spread out.  

We didn’t really have many neighbors close by when we lived in Wilder except for an older couple that lived just around the corner from us.  I remember my brother told the man once that he shouldn’t smoke.  I also remember my grandmother living with us.  Her hands were very crippled because of her arthritis.  She would sing songs to us.  She lived with us quit a bit, alternating between my mother and her sister, so I remember having some experience with her there.  We had a piano too in our living room that were part of my earliest memories, and I remember my sister taking lessons.  My mom played some, but none of us played a lot at the time.  But that was always important in our family – to have a piano.  I’ve always enjoyed music.  

The greatest influences on my in my early years were definitely my parents.  Both of my parents lost one of their parents early in life.  My dad’s father died when he was eleven, and he was from a family of ten children.  It was hard, HARD times.  They didn’t have anything to eat part of the time; they ate what they grew and traded for things they needed.  My mom’s dad was the oldest in a big family, but he wasn’t faithful.  He left my mom and her sister when my mom was about eight years old, and never really communicated with them or came back.  So, she really had a sad life in a lot of ways.  They had to live with relatives for most of the time.  But what amazing parents they were!  They didn’t have a perfect family example to follow, but they rose above that.  And when it was time to be married, most people got married where they were, then traveled to the temple a year later.  They lived in Lave Hot Springs, and it was quite a distance to travel to Salt Lake in those days.  But the bishop’s wife drove my parents and their two mothers to the Salt Lake Temple to get married.  You know, it would have been a lot easier, and a lot less trouble, to just get married and then sometime go to the temple.  But that’s always been an amazing thing to me, that they set that example, and were so determined to BE that example.  That meant a lot to me.  You’ve got to be faithful.  You’ve got to do it right.  My great, great grandmother on my dad’s side came through with the Willie Handcart Company.  As I look back on my bloodline an example can be really important, and looking back at those ancestors, I want to be that kind of an ancestor to my posterity.  

 

Some of my most vivid memories are of enjoying going to church.  We had primary and we had associations and the opportunities there.  One of the things I remember really well was that we had an outdoor cellar we used for a fridge.  We didn’t have a refrigerator.  We had a spring that ran down to the river, and we had a cellar built with a wooden trough that let the spring water run through it, and that’s where we kept things cool.  Well, you remember things that were traumatic or happy so it must have been one time my brother was riding a horse and the horse fell through the roof of the cellar into what I think I was the inlet for the spring water.  I don’t think we put things in the water to keep cool, but I should ask someone because I really don’t remember.  Maybe we did have a fridge in the house… but I know that’s where we kept veggies and things like that – in the cellar.  In those days everyone had a cellar.  We did have electricity in the house, but no running water.  And I don’t think there was even a bathroom – just that outdoor privy.  

Another traumatic experience: My dad loved to go to the old western movies.  We had a big bathtub that sat on a chair, and of course you’d take turns taking baths.  We were getting ready to go to a movie on Saturday night and the tub tipped off, and it got water everywhere!  We heated the water in a big reservoir on the end of the wood stove.  The tub must have been on a big chair or something they had been built because it was up off the floor, and that water spilled everywhere.  And it probably made us late for the movie.  I don’t remember the movies, but I remember that.  

I had another experience in the wintertime I remember well.  We had a pond outside our house in the field, and my older sister and brother and I were playing on the ice.  And, you know, we must not have been too smart, because they were making holes in the ice with broomsticks.  The ice broke underneath me and I fell in, and they had to pull me out.  I was all socking wet and they had to take me in to Mom.  It could have been a very serious accident.  I don’t know how deep it was, but for a three- or four-year-old it was pretty deep.  These are my memories, and they may be mixed up a little bit, but It’s what I remember.  Those are probably the scariest things I remember – nothing with animals.  We had those horses, but they were old and quiet.  They were strictly for work.  I never have really been that kind of an outdoor person.  I’ve always enjoyed being inside doing things.  My grandma taught me how to crochet because she lived with us in Wilder and in New Plymouth.

After we moved to New Plymouth, I remember a lot more.  I was in first grade and we changed schools.  I was almost as tall as my teacher, which was really embarrassing.  I grew up and grew tall quite early but then I kind of leveled off about sixth grade.  So, I was tall for my age when I started grade school.  

I was always a little bit shy because I was taller than everyone else, and for first grade I had a really small teacher.  It was probably a little traumatic for me to move into a new school and be a little bit big for my age, even though I was in the right class.  My second-grade teacher was Mrs. Wolfley, and she was a member of the church and I felt more comfortable there.  We had a school where we had three grades and then we moved across the street to more of a middle school for fourth and fifth grades.  In New Plymouth we lived eight miles out of town, and that takes a while to travel, so we didn’t come and go a lot.  We rode the bus to school, and that was a long ride.  The strange thing was we had a neighbor right across the street, and we could see into their picture window and they could see into ours.  So there we were, eight miles out of town, and you had all of this farm land around you, and you had a neighbor right across the street!  

During my teenage years, I had cousins that lived in Homedale and they were our closest friends.  We would go over there, or they would come over sometimes on Sunday afternoons and have dinner.  In those days we had our Sunday school meetings in the morning, and then our Sacrament meeting in the evening.  I think back at how we used to do it – the poor little kids were falling asleep by 7:30 in the evening.  Simultaneously, Lary was growing up in Marsing.  But our paths never really crossed as kids.  My aunt and uncle lived out in that area, and they had a neighbor that you could see into each other’s back yards.  So, when I was out there with my cousins, they knew the teenage boys who lived through that field.  Lary was a friend of the kids who lived across the field so I may have seen him, but I didn’t ever meet him.  We know a lot of the same people, which is very interesting.  We grew up along the same river knowing a lot of the same people.  But I never met him because he was four years older than me.  That’s quite a few years when you’re young, so when he graduated from High School, I was only in the eighth grade.  

We lived right next to two canals.  The one right next to our house had a high, steep bank, so we didn’t ever go in it to swim.  But we did go half a mile down the road to the other one to swim and get cooled in the summer, but I never really learned to swim.  I did play in the canal in water up to my chin but made sure my head did not get under the water.  I still don’t know how to swim.  And now I think I might be too old and too tired to learn.  

I really enjoyed everything, and I feel I had a happy childhood.  Even though my dad worked two jobs, we had a good family life and I have a lot of great memories.  We had the farm with hay to harvest and cows to milk.  My dad also worked at the sawmill in Emmett which was about a half hour away.  Part of the time he worked nights, and then he farmed in the daytime.  Other times he worked two weeks days and two weeknights.  It was hard, and that’s why I say my parents were such an influence because he was a hard, HARD worker.  He did a great job of providing for our large family.  I didn’t ever feel deprived of money or time.  It was an interesting thing how they were able to balance things but, because now I know we didn’t have very much money to support our large family.  We always went to church together.  And we also had family home evening.  We didn’t call it that, we called it Family hour.  Even back then in the 50’s the church encouraged us to have what we now call Family Home evening.  

I spent a lot of time traveling by car with my dad, I think because my mom wanted me to help keep him awake.  At the time I was in high school my dad was the stake Sunday School Superintendent, and he visited all of the branches and wards which was the whole circle starting in Emmett, Fruitland, New Plymouth, and then Payette, Council, Riggins, McCall, Cascade, Donnelly, Sweet and Ola.  I went to all of those churches with him, but we never missed our own sacrament meeting.  We didn’t visit them all in one day, it mush have been about monthly.  I remember those days and remember those buildings, and I think those trips are one reason I never felt left out of his life.  Maybe the other kids didn’t have the opportunity, but I really enjoyed those times.  I think that has a lot to do with my testimony; something that grows when you have a new experience.  I was there to keep him company.  I was his partner.  

I did spend a lot of time with my brother LaMarr.  We spent a lot of time together outdoors.  We had a big garden and I remember working in the garden with him.  I remember catching pollywogs in the little ditches out on the farm because we flood irrigated.  I’m sure I went with my dad to irrigate sometimes.  I remember going after the cows.  We would go along the ditch bank, and one time my brother picked up this old car door and there was a snake under it, and it scared us both pretty bad.  We would go up to get the cows and I would help him milk.  One time I must have upset him, and he threw a bucket of water on me, so I said I was NOT going to help him anymore.  I don’t know why he did that for sure, but I must have said I wouldn’t do something … but we usually got along really well.  My parents went up to Moscow when he graduated from school, and I got to stay home and take care of the farm.  So, when I was in high school I did a lot of farm work.  That’s one reason why Lary married me – I knew how to drive a tractor.  Now he teases me when I don’t want to do some of the things that he wants me to do, like driving the tractor!

There were no sports for girls when I was in high school.  I played a clarinet in the band in junior high, and then I was a majorette in the high school band for probably two years.  I got really involved in choir.  In a small school you can do some of everything.  I was never a cheerleader, and I honestly didn’t get involved in any kind of sports.  I went to games when the band played, and I remember going to one basketball game in Fruitland which was an away game, but still close to home.  Now that’s pretty bad, not to support the team!  But I wasn’t into sports, and I didn’t follow them.  I was into music.  Lary wasn’t into sports either, that much.  He ran track and wrestled.  But it was hard for us to see the good in sports when our kids started going to school.  Because when I was in school, it wasn’t the good people who played football.  They were the boys that were rough and used tobacco – I mean they didn’t have all the rules they have now to keep the players clean.  So, for me, sports weren’t that good.  It’s an interesting thing because we had to do a mindset change when our own children wanted to play sports.  We learned to see the good.  It was good for our children to be involved.  But it was really hard for the first girls because we balked a little bit about them being in anything athletic or staying after school.  But sometimes you just have to change your mindset a little bit.  We began to understand the community and got to know the other parents and the other students and the good people that were involved in sports now.  

When I was in middle school and high school, I loved music, but I wasn’t very good at it.  So, I tried playing the piano but I’m still not really good at that.  When I got into eight grade I had a piano teacher who was also our bishop for part of the time I was in high school, and he was a very GOOD musician.  His name was Moyle Brown, and he said, “Lets try something different.” He knew I was struggling with the piano and kind of getting to a point where “you can’t do it like you’d like to.”  So, he taught me voice lessons.  And I feel that was probably one of the big influences in my life at that time.  Because I didn’t feel comfortable with the piano – I still play the piano, and I make mistakes, but oh well, I just have to live with that.  But he taught me enough in voice that I went to music festivals every year and got superior ratings, and was also in the girls Sextet.  I went to All-State and All-Northwest choir, so he really encouraged me to work hard and I was about to accomplish that goal.  I feel like that was probably one of the biggest influences in my life during my high school years – having that opportunity to perform and succeed.  That’s where my younger sister Karla comes in.  She was four years younger, but she was very good on the piano and she played for me to practice at home and was usually my accompanist.  She was in junior high and went with me and played for me, all except my freshman year one time when my best friend played for me.  I was singing The Lord’s Prayer at a music competition, and the center page of her music was turned backwards.  So, when she got to the center page she was in trouble.  But I still got a Superior rating.  That’s one of those vivid memories.  She just kind of stopped, so I went on, she turned the page around, and we kept going.  I don’t sing as much anymore.  I don’t have the breath control and ability.  You know it all kind of goes when you get about 60, and I’m 66.  I’d love to be able to sing like I used to, but … I enjoy it still.  I’d like my children know that I loved school.  I worked hard at it, and at graduation I was our class Salutatorian and also won the citizenship and music awards for my graduating class of 1962.  My hard work paid off when I received a scholarship that allowed me to attend BYU in the fall.  

I loved homemaking.  I went to BYU one year, which was the year I met Lary.  I was actually going to be a home economics teacher or a dietitian.  I enjoyed chemistry, and I got a B+ in it my freshman year.  We had class in a huge auditorium in the Joseph Smith building.  I wouldn’t say BYU was intimidating as much as quite exciting.  I had really only been out of the state of Idaho a couple of times.  Our “trips” mainly consisted of going back and forth to Lava Hot Springs for family reunions.  And I believe we took a trip to Yellowstone Park once, but I don’t remember much about that one.  The first time I went to Utah I went to a June conference with my music teacher who was also my bishop.  They had a youth choir that I sang with at the conference.  That was one of my first experiences being outside the state of Idaho, so going to college was a BIG DEAL.  I had a roommate who was a friend from Fruitland.  She was a year ahead of me, so it was OK because she kind of knew the ropes.  I don’t ever remember feeling lost.  I was fairly confident at that point.  I was in the Oratorio Choir, and Lary was in the choir as well.  My musical training and the success I achieved through that was a big reason why I was confident as I went to college.  I think every person needs to develop a talent somewhere, that they can use to serve other people.  A lot of my life is contained in those memories.  Music is powerful. 

Obituary

Marianne Kofoed Walker left a legacy of Christ-like love and service when she passed away on January 2, 2021, at age 76. She peacefully slipped into eternal glory after a lengthy battle with a rare form of blood cancer. Marianne was born on April 6, 1944, to Glenn and Verla Kofoed, who lived in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, at the time. As a child, they moved to New Plymouth, Idaho, where she grew up with her eight siblings, whom she loved, and stayed connected with as she organized family gatherings and Sunday meals.

 

While attending New Plymouth High School, she served in student council leadership and graduated as Salutatorian in 1962. Crowned in that same year as Miss Payette County, she ventured off to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University. While touring with the Oratorio Choir, she fell in love with fellow choir member Lary Clayton Walker. On July 23, 1963, they were married in the Idaho Falls Temple and remained sweethearts through 57 years of marriage.

 

Her resourceful homemaking skills and careful financial accounting supported Lary through law school and kept the home and Walker Law Office running through the ups and downs of life. With homemade clothes – jackets, prom dresses, and wedding dresses – she sewed love into the lives and events of her eleven children: Lori, Lara, LaReesa, Delton, Dallan, DeLon, Devin, Daniel, Derrel, Kira, Kirsten. The aroma of homemade foods: fresh bread, chocolate fudge, and peach milkshakes defined her home as a comfortable place to live and visit. Her posterity considers the way she cared for her biological children and their spouses, (whom she loved as her own) several non-biological children, 66 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren to be a mothering miracle. She was a dedicated fan at her children’s activities and sporting events. In an extraordinarily Christ-like manner, she filled others with individualized love, even in the last cancer-ridden decades of her life.

 

Surrendering her time, talents, and energy to the wants and needs of those around her, she embodied selfless service at home and in Weiser, Idaho, where they lived most of their married life. Those who knew her best observed her passion and pastime was to reach out and strengthen the weak and befriend the friendless, with compassion in her heart and a smile on her face. Though not in optimal health, she happily volunteered later in life to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, first in Russia then in Wichita, Kansas, and enjoyed a miraculous suspension of her cancer while sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the last few days of her life, while reminiscing with a friend with whom she served, she said, “We had too much fun for it to be considered church service.” She will be sorely missed and never forgotten!

Kirsten

As our family gathered in front of our zoom screen today, Mom’s face appeared, fatigued but still smiling. She began receiving oxygen yesterday and is weaker than I’ve seen her. “Where’s Anker?” she asked. He was cozied up on Steve’s lap and waved hello. When Mom asked where Eli was I called him inside from where he had been playing with a butter-knife sword and pot-lid shield. She asked about each child, inquiring about their recent activities. Where’s Ezra? Is Brooklyn’s horseback riding still canceled? And when Ben played his Christmas song for her on the piano she nodded her head and said, “He practices every morning…”  

Mom has a gift for remembering. If I needed a phone number, I would skip the phone book and ask Mom. Birthdays, anniversaries, recipes, she knows it all. When Dad was preparing to give Mom a blessing a few weeks ago, with all the family gathered via zoom, Dad had to ask Mom where to find the consecrated oil. Sick as she was, she called from the couch and gave him directions to find it. More significantly, Mom also has a special gift for remembering people. She feels for those who are on the margins of life and reaches out to them by noticing what is important to them, by traveling to see them––even if it is inconvenient for her. Just a week or so ago, as she lie weak on the couch, she was plotting a way to take Aunt Connie up to see Treva’s new house in Donnelly. She is worried that Treva feels isolated and Mom wants her siblings to celebrate Treva’s joys. 

My memories as a little girl are filled with images of extra brothers. On top of my six beloved and rowdy brothers, Mom made sure that Brett Dille, Matt Sanders and Big Al all had a Mom when they needed one. The sack lunches she made each morning for the pile of football players tumbling through her house were so full you couldn’t fold over the top. Each bag filled with sandwiches made with her homemade bread. As a teenager, I traveled with Mom and Dad on their Home Teaching assignment to the Jones family. I bumped along in the back seat for an hour into the Idaho outback to sit with a family who hadn’t been to church in decades. And for each of those decades Mom and Dad kept driving to see them, to make sure they were known and loved. 

While I was searching through mom’s pictures for this book, I came across a Mother’s Day gift I made for her. It was a book that listed ten reasons why I would miss Mom when I went to college. Number 8 on the list was titled, “Things I Forget”. I wrote, “There were so many days when I got to school and realized I wasn’t prepared for the day. You would always drop everything you were doing and help me get my act together. I didn’t deserve that, but you always did it for me.” I got a chuckle out of reading and it reminded me of all the days I frantically walked down the halls of the school to the front office. I would make a call to Mom, asking for my volleyball uniform, my track shoes, my flute, an assignment I needed to turn in, etc. The list of things I forgot is too long to detail. Mom could have let me learn a few lessons about organization or planning but she just loved me and helped me everytime she could. And I really did miss having her close when I left for BYU. No roommates were quite as helpful when I was across campus without an assignment that was due. Mom never forgets the important stuff nor the little stuff and I always feel like a priority in her life.

Mom came to San Francisco to help our family after I had Eli. Between meals, managing school schedules and entertaining the three older kids, there is always a lot for a Grandma to help with when a baby arrives. But the first thing Mom noticed when she arrived was how swollen and cold my feet were. She sat on the edge of the hospital bed and rubbed my feet and then helped me pull on my hospital grip-bottom socks. Steve noted the way Mom cared for me and we talked about how I was one of Mom’s priorities during that time. She was there to do all the other everyday things that were hard for me to do, but most of all, she was there to love me and make sure I was cared for amidst all the bustle of a growing family. 

In the last few months (ok, really, it started the day he was born), Eli has been on a streak of mischief. He loves to escape and would run over to the neighbor’s house and hide in their dog kennel, or their rabbit hutch. He runs down the street and lets himself into any house with the front door unlocked. Most recently he learned to unlock our gates and when we fortified the locks, he learned to climb the fence. Mom has listened to me wail about keeping track of Eli and when I call to chat she always asks about him. A few weeks ago she spent a few minutes expressing how much she loves Eli and how she is sure he is going to grow and do important things. She always remembers and sees the best in everyone. 

Just a few months ago, Kira and I visited Mom and Dad for Grandma Walker’s funeral. Kira, as an aside during a conversation, mentioned that she didn’t have melatonin or tums and would need them. When Kira and I returned to their house after spending time with family, Mom and Dad were asleep but on the bathroom counter was a small ziploc bag with a tums and a melatonin and Kira’s name in black sharpie. That’s Mom. She notices needs and remembers others through acts of love, big and small. She is a constant in my life and I can always trust that whatever my failings, she will love and remember me. 

Mom has a gift for saving, avoiding waste and miraculously multiplying food. I tease her about the things she saves and drive her crazy with my tendency to throw away yogurt containers and grocery bags when she isn’t watching. She can always find a purpose for what I deem trash. Even in her cooking, she is amazing at making something out of nothing. 

Before Mom and Dad came home from their mission in Guymon, I spent time organizing the memorabilia collected from all the kids. It was a peek into each of our childhoods––she saved newspaper clippings, missionary letters, cards, pictures, school work, gifts, letterman’s jacket paraphernalia, baby books, baby hair clippings, and hospital bands. She wanted to make sure that everyone got the things that they wanted 

Last summer when my family came to visit, the kids rounded up their Cove Road cousins and friends to play. When the posse came rushing into the house they were, of course, starving. Mom miraculously had fresh homemade bread and chocolate milk whipped up and ready. She dished out third and fourth servings to anyone that asked. Even when finances are tight, Mom always seems to have or be able to make what is needed for everyone. 

When LaReesa, Kira and I visited Mom after she was placed on hospice, we spent time setting up the house so she could get around with her walker and so others could help her when needed. Mom asked us to go through her clothes because many didn’t fit. In the process of going through her clothes we found an old light green sweater which Mom said was from Lori’s mission! We also found every family reunion shirt we have ever made. Mom loves to save cards that others have given her and her cedar chest is full of sweet notes from family members. One of my favorite finds was a graduation card from her best brother LaMarr. It said, “I’d like to send a penny for every candle on your cake…but who has that kind of money these days?” 🙂 Mom values any effort others put forward to show love and will treasure that gesture forever.

While we were going through things she remembered a white binder sitting on top of her sock drawer. She directed me to it and told me to take it home. When I looked, I found carefully printed and hole-punched emails from my mission along with a few pictures I had never seen of my first days in Guatemala. I am so grateful Mom prepared it and saved it! In honor, I’ll be keeping my yogurt containers from now on. 🙂

It’s obvious to note that Mom did more than just save temporal things to avoid waste. In her own way, Mom saved me spiritually. My collection of memories of her include her sweet soprano voice singing me to sleep with all seven verses of “I Wonder When He Comes Again”, her quietly listening to me vent my worries and gently counseling me in my important decisions, her undying support through all the problems I work myself into, the natural way she cares for me and so much more. Mom is a pillar of power and stability in my life. Even as a grown woman with my own motherly skills, going to visit Mom always feels like becoming a child again. Spending time with her always feels easy and I love falling into the rhythm of letting her care for me. 

Mom is selfless. As a teenager, hunting for a birthday present or a christmas present, this truth about Mom made shopping almost pointless. Deciphering her needs was always a challenge for me because she never seemed needy. I remember one day while sitting in seminary, I started thinking about Mom. We were talking about what it means to be Christlike and the truth that Mom is one of the most Christlike individuals I have encountered in life flooded through me. Her soul is pure. She is humble, thoughtful and steady. She finds joy in her everyday work and in the non-material; she is content with her life ––no matter the bumps along the way. I love you, Mom!