Connie French

Connie Morris French, of Buhl, passed away on January 11th, the day before her 97th birthday. She died peacefully, in her home, with about 30 relatives gathered around her, loving her into heaven. Last week, she told us she didn't want to live to be 97. She wanted to fall asleep and wake up in heaven, and that's what she did.
Connie was born on January 12, 1918, in Montrose, Missouri, to William and Ina Chisham. She was the sixth of sixteen children, including 5 sets of twins, born to William and Ina and has been proceeded in death by 14 of them: (Ina Jewel & William Fewel), Carl Lincoln, (Eunice E & a twin who died at birth), Willard Shade, Majorie R, (Paul Penn & Pearl P), (Nina Jean & Mina Dean), (Ada May & Hazel Faye)and a second baby who died at birth. Connie is survived by one brother, Don Chisham, of American Canyon, CA.
Connie moved from Missouri to Idaho with her family when she was eight years old. She told stories of riding horseback to attend school at the Lucerne school and later the Buhl school into the ninth grade. She said all the kids got one new pair of shoes each year before school started, so by the time the next Summer came around, they ran around barefoot.
At age 18, Connie married Earl French and together they had six children. They moved around to numerous locations, were she was a stay at home wife and mother, while Earl worked as a millwright on numerous dams, including 3 in Hagerman, as well as Priest River, Mountain Home, Brownlee, Clarks Fork, Oxbow, Cabinet Gorge, Noxin, Fort Randal, SD, and Bully Creek. They moved to Boise, Idaho in 1967. After all her children were grown, she worked as a cook at North's Chuckwagon and the Mode in Boise, Idaho before she moved, again, to Buhl, Idaho with her husband in 1984.
Earl passed away just one month before their 50th wedding anniversary. Their children are all still living and are Bernita (Dallas) Voorhees of Buhl, Id; Willard French of Buhl; Dale (Kathy) French of Kuna, Id; Wayne (Jane) French of Idaho Falls; Nancy (Roy) Murphy of Buhl; and Larry (Anita) French of Grand Junction, Colorado. She had 16 grandchildren, 44 great grandchildren and 27 great-great grandchildren.
She loved canning 500-600 quarts of food, from her husband's huge garden, each year, much of which she gave to her kids. Being around family brought her joy. Her children remember her baking all her own bread, cinnamon rolls, scones and cookies by the dozen, and there was always her special chocolate cake. When growing up, her children remember coming home from school, each day, to a big white cup full of (from scratch) hot chocolate ready to drink. Her grandchildren knew she had hidden candy treasures in her purse for them at all times. She was a great cook and loved to "bury that ham in the ground". She enjoyed camping and though she didn't fish, she loved going with the family while they fished. She was an avid reader and could recite more poems, from memory, than most people ever read.
Connie's funeral was held on January 17th, at 11am, at Peace Lutheran Church, in Filer, Idaho. Arraignments were under the direction of Farmer Funeral Chapel of Buhl, Idaho.