Jean Marie Gowans

Jean Marie Gowans, 89, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Weiser, ID on Sunday, March 1, 2026. Born January 26, 1937 in Weiser, ID, she was the youngest child of Vernon and Naomi Chandler.

During her childhood, Jean enjoyed helping her dad in the fields, horseback riding, and playing with her siblings and cousins. She especially enjoyed participating in extra-curricular activities at school and developing her many talents-something that she later encouraged in her own children. In school, Jean played on the baseball team as a pitcher and participated in competitive dance groups. Music was always very important to Jean. She started taking piano lessons in the second grade and played the clarinet in the high school marching band. As an adult, Jean also took organ lessons and learned to play the flute.

Jean graduated from Weiser High school in 1955 and attended Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Executive Secretary in 1959. The following summer, Jean moved to Portland, OR, where she mether husband, Richard Gowans, and raised her family. Richard and Jean were sealed for time and all eternity in the Logan Utah Temple on September 15, 1960.

Together, Richard and Jean raised eight children and a grandchild. Jean created many family traditions that will continue to impact future generations of Gowanses for years to come. She created special birthdays with favorite homemade cakes; an annual new year's snack party; and bounteous Christmases full of special meals, Swedish tea cakes, a felt advent calendar, and hand sewn Christmas stockings.

After many years in Portland, Richard and Jean returned to her home, Weiser, ID in August of 1997 where they lived on family land in a house designed by Richard. Here, Jean continued to care for her children, and later grandchildren, through her talents-sewing quilts for each family member, cultivating thanksgiving traditions, providing space for carefree summers like the ones she passed as a child, and baking cowboy cookies and pumpkin pies. In Weiser, Richard and Jean celebrated 65 years of marriage.

Jean was proceeded in death by her father and mother, Vernon and Naomi Chandler, and her four older siblings, Thelma May, Frank Vernon, George Lawrence "Laurie," and Keith Eldon. She is survived by her husband Richard Gowans; her eight children and their spouses: Darla and Richard Kice, Glade Gowans, Brent and Laurie Gowans, Christina and Jim Saxton, David Gowans, Melinda Benner, Craig and Jess Gowans, and Maria and Aaron Alder; twenty-one grandchildren; one great-grandchild-and one on the way.

Memorial services were held on Saturday, March 7 at 11 AM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Weiser, ID. She is interred in Hillcrest Cemetery in Weiser, ID.