Sybil Howe — Spencer

Sibyl was born March 23,1923, in Ontario, Oregon. Her father, Themis William Penn, was a Greek born in what is now Turkey. Her mother, Stella Rees Penn, was born in Ontario, Oregon to parents who homesteaded near Cairo Junction in 1894. 

Sibyl was the only girl with three older and three younger brothers. Her father farmed and they lived in Ontario, Payette, and Weiser while she was growing up. When they lived in Weiser, she says they took an old horse-drawn buckboard to school in the winter. The older brothers rode in front while she and her younger brother Howard would sit in a box in the back. It was four miles to school that way but only one mile if you walked across the fields. 

By the time she was in high school they had moved back to Ontario where she graduated in 1942. She remembers that her high school class had dwindled because most of the boys had joined the military after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  

After graduating, Sibyl worked at Jibs Shake Shop in Ontario where she met, then married, Earl Howe. During the war, Earl was a flight instructor stationed in Chicago where she was able to meet her father’s sisters and a brother who had immigrated from Greece. After the war, Earl and Sibyl moved to Weiser where Earl ran the airport and, later, back to Fruitland where they took over the family farm. 

Sibyl has worked all of her life doing everything from working in the diner, a bank, a drapery shop, a packing shed, a print shop and an eye doctor. She was active in the Fruitland school PTA and the Methodist Church. She has two children, Mark Howe and Pam Howe Grant, two grandchildren, Felicia Howe and Ron Grant, and two great grandchildren, Garrison Grant and Scott Grant. 

After Earl’s death, Sibyl met and married Harry Spencer. They lived on the farm in Fruitland where they started an aerial spraying business, including a helicopter. After retiring, they spent time traveling, fishing on the coast and playing golf. Sibyl still lives on the farm which has now been in the family for over 100 years.    

Sibyl enjoys playing the piano and gardening. She gets many wonderful comments about the flowers in her yard. After her Allium lose their color, Sibyl spray paints them her favorite colors, Boise State blue and orange. 

John Roop "Jack" Graham   1914-2014

Jack Graham passed away quietly in Fruitland December 4, 2014 on the same property where he was born, September 1, 1914, a century ago. Jack was the sixth child of guy and Jenny Graham. His parents left from Centerview, Missouri after their wedding, traveling in a rented boxcar along with their draft horses and arrived in Fruitland around 1898. Their homestead on Elmore Road has been in the Graham family for 116 years. Jack grew up in Fruitland and loved fast cars and the trombone. He married Marjorie Indermuehle in Weiser on June 19, 1937. During World War II, Jack and Marjorie worked Kaiser Shipyard in Portland, Oregon. On September 2, 1945, the day Japan surrendered, they returned to Fruitland for the rest of their lives. Jack as a jack of all trades; he ran a small farm and one-man automobile service. Later he worked for the canneries and Payette County as a mechanic.

Throughout his life, Jack loved working with animals and cars. His final retirement project lasted well into the 90's; the restoration of a 1934 Ford pickup. Jack and Marjorie spent happy times in their cabin in Cascade, Idaho. Later in life, he spent his time with books on tape, petting his cat, Rusty, and looking out to the mountains that he knew so well as a boy. Jack was kind, patient and optimistic. He reached his goal of living 100 years, enjoying good health until the last few weeks of his life. Jack was preceded in death by Marjorie in 1998 and recently, but hid daughter, JoAnne Hallberg, who owned the Elmore Road home and who, with much help by her husband, Fritz Hallberg, took care of Jack through his 90's.

He is survived by three daughters, Judy Holman of Trout Lake, Washington, Janis Dillard of Milford, Deleware, Marilou Smith of Wilsonville, Oregon, son, David Graham of Scappoose, Oregon, six grandchildren, three great grandchildren.

Olga Holt   1917-2020

Olga was born Olgica Heleine Messersmith on 12-20-17 in Cleveland Ohio. She was the youngest of seven children born to Jozsef and Marishka Messerschmiedt, both immigrants from Hungary. Olga, who was fluent in Hungarian, would often belt out the familiar phrase “Magyar Nap szueletem es meg halok szueletem” which translates “I was born Hungarian and I will die Hungarian”. Hungarians are known to live life loud and to its fullest measure. This was Olga indeed!

She was the adored baby sister showered with plenty of love and always the center of attention. Olga loved to dance her little heart out in the center of the living room with her brother Louis at the piano. As a young girl, Olga was the helper, babysitter and entertainer for her brothers and sisters as they had no children of their own. Generations of cousins, nieces and nephews have sweet memories of Olga’s love and amazing stories.

In the late 1940’s, Olga saw a poster in a store window offering overseas job opportunities with the United States War Department. She signed up and was put on a ship to Japan. Olga’s amazing stories were sometimes beyond belief. Would you believe she was left behind while traveling through Panama, jumped on a private boat and waived down a United States warship so she could get back on board? Yep. It happened. She played cards with the ship captain, served with the base commander, met General MacArthur and attended all kinds of international embassy events. She still loved to dance.

Olga met her lifelong love on a reluctant blind date in Guam, enter Captain William Roger Holt of the United States Marine Corp. As Bill would say, “the Marines have landed”. They were married in Guam and remained best friends, companions and passionate lovers for the next 56 years. Bill’s hometown, Fruitland Idaho, became the home base of their love story.

Olga was an accomplished artist, teacher, an exceptional cook and a consummate entertainer. She loved her friends, family and any opportunity to get together and party. She was deeply invested in the lives of those she loved and engaging to everyone around her.

Olga passed away with sweet elegance in her Fruitland home on 12-4-2020, a few weeks short of her 103rd birthday. Olga is survived and memorialized by multiple generations of family and countless friends who were loved and adored as members of Olga’s extended family. The stories will live on. POWDER RIVER!

Stewart "Lloyd" Johnson   1916-2017

101 year old Stewart Sandidge “Lloyd” Johnson of Fruitland peacefully passed away at his home September 19, 2017, surrounded by loving family and friends. Lloyd was born on June 2, 1916, the sixth of eight children born to Benjamin and Stella Johnson. His parents were early McCall pioneers.

He graduated from McCall High School and attended the University of Utah and the University of Idaho. Lloyd was an avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, skier and smokejumper. He loved telling stories of McCall, the mountains, the people and of his days leading search and rescue trips into Idaho’s primitive area.

When he was 7 years old Lloyd was proclaimed the “world’s smallest ski jumper” at the initial McCall Winter Carnival. He had a passion for skiing. He was an original member of the “Idaho Ski Team” who were instrumental in promoting Sun Valley and skiing in Idaho. After having helped develop the Little Ski Hill in McCall he taught skiing, formed the Mighty Mites and turned them into Olympic skiers. He was a key contributor to planning and establishing Brundage Mountain ski area and was an active skier until he was 90.

He worked for many years for the US Forest Service and became the original smokejumper on the Payette National Forest. Lloyd built the smokejumper base and was the Base Foreman when the McCall Smokejumpers formed in 1943 and he continued until 1953. He has been recognized nationally as the oldest living smokejumper and says, “We never lost a fire because we got on them early.”

In, 1954, he moved his family to Fruitland to begin his new career as owner of a Westcott Oil distributorship, a business he successfully operated until his retirement. After retiring, Lloyd managed the New Plymouth Cenex Farm Center for 10 years. 

Lloyd was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Betty Gillespie Johnson, and by six of his siblings. He is survived by his daughter Judy (Wayne) Meyer and his son Jon, as well as 6 grandchildren – Brett (Kelly) Meyer, Denise (Chum) Sullivan, Tanya Meyer, Lisa (Bart) Veis, Ryan and Spencer Johnson and 8 great-grandchildren – Seda, Ashlin, Logan, Emily, Justin, Jared, Lucy and Maddie. He is also survived by his sister Ione (Bob) Gordon of Boise, sister-in-law Marion Johnson of McCall and many nieces and nephews.

Lloyd was a loved and cherished son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, uncle and friend. His favorite saying – “if you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend”.

He was a friend and supporter of Fruitland High School and the entire Fruitland community.

Lloyd Johnson embodied the ideals that have made this country great – hard work, love of family and generosity of spirit.