Yvonne Moosman

Yvonne Moosman
June 26, 1929 ~ April 8, 2015
Our mother, Yvonne Moosman, passed away quietly and with dignity April 8, 2015, with her daughter Cindy by her side.
Yvonne was born June 26, 1929 at her aunt Neomah Zerlin's house in Emmett, Idaho, to teenage parents Elmer Smith and Mary Neal Smith. Yvonne descended from great-grandfathers John Neal, William Wilburn, and Elijah Horine; 3 Civil War veterans who could go no further on the Oregon Trail and settled in the lower Payette Valley in Idaho Territory. Yvonne's grandparents, Isaac Neal and Sarah Wilburn, were married on an island in the Snake River in 1884.
Newborn Yvonne and her parents moved briefly to Butte, Montana, where Elmer hoped to get a job working with his uncles in the mines. Grandma Mary missed her eleven older brothers and sisters, so they moved back to Idaho and settled in Pioneerville in the Boise Basin. Grandpa Elmer started working at the Golden Age Mine, built a house making all the furniture from dynamite boxes. To help make a living, he also cut firewood by hand for three dollars a cord. Venison and canned produce sent up by Emmett relatives helped sustain the young family.
Yvonne became her dad's best friend. She started fly fishing, target practicing, and traveled to the Diana School on homemade skis. Baby sister Marilyn was born in 1935.
In 1938, Yvonne and her family moved to Atlanta, Idaho, where Talache Mines were starting to rework the famous Atlanta Load. Elmer started a sawmill at Swanholm Creek, 16 miles below Atlanta. The family first lived in a tent on the Yuba river, then moved into town and lived in the old overcrowded Montezuma Hotel. Elmer saved all the clear lumber from his sawmill and built a house on Quartz Street. In the thin mountain air, Yvonne grew straight and tall and beautiful. She spent as much time as possible either skiing or fishing. Atlanta was a busy place in the 1940's, with a bowling alley, movie theater, baseball team, and square dances with live music every Saturday in the Hub Tavern. Yvonne became the champion marble player in the Atlanta school, winning everyone's marbles - then giving them back to start the process over. Her first job was helping in the boarding house when dredges were operating on the Boise King Placer Mines below Atlanta. Yvonne boarded out with her aunt Margaret Cox to finish high school, graduating in 1947 from Twin Falls High School.
Three days after her 18th birthday, she married Lester Moosman in Boise. They returned to Atlanta alongside his father and father-in-law in the gold mines.
Son Lynn was born in 1947, son Kerry in 1951, and daughter Cindy in 1957. Transporting newborn babies on treacherous mountain roads, and living far away in snowbound Atlanta where roads slid shut for months at a time was made easier by the support of a close-knit community of relatives and deeply loved Atlanta neighbors and friends.
Yvonne and family moved to Boise in 1959. At age 30, Yvonne got what we all take for granted; namely indoor plumbing with hot running water. After years of coaxing a few flowers during Atlanta's brief growing season, gardening became a passion for Yvonne. Always starting from seeds, not plants, she grew rows and rows of marigolds, zinnias, dahlias, gladiolas, roses, irises, mums, snapdragons, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, and hot peppers. She could not get enough color. Weekends were always spent hunting and fishing. Vacations were spent at deer and elk hunting camps at the headwaters of the Yuba River near Atlanta.
Yvonne collected native Idaho cactus from her fishing trips; she always carried a pocket knife; she bowled 300 more than once; she always had a cat.
She lost Lester, her best friend and fishing partner, in 2004. Now she is reunited with all those friends she lost along the way.
Yvonne is survived by her sister Marilyn Kalange and Marilyn's family; son Lynn and wife Sherry of Cascade; son, Kerry; and daughter, Cindy Jett of Mt. Home. Also surviving are grandchildren, Kory Olson, Brian Moosman, Abbie McGrath (Ryan), Skylar Jett (Josh Dison); great-grandchildren, Garrett, Hunter, Cody Moosman, Lainey and Kobie Olson, and Goldie and Poppy McGrath, who cheered up Grandma Von in her final days.
Goodbye, sweet mother; you left us too soon.`