Maude Nettleton, 97

Maude Nettleton, 97, of Oreana, died Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006, in Mountain Home.

A viewing will start at 4 p.m. and a rosary at 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15, at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel in Mountain Home. A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006, at the Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Oreana with burial to follow at the Oreana Cemetery. A dinner will follow Saturday's services at the Oreana Community Hall. Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel in Mountain Home.

Sara Maude Sothern was born Aug. 1, 1909, the oldest child of Alfred G "Appie" and Mary Elizabeth (Carothers) Sothern at DeLamar, Idaho, near Silver City, and grew up surrounded by a large extended family in the Owyhee Mountains.

Maude started school in Silver City at age nine. She attended schools in Silver City, Oreana, Long Beach and Hailey. She graduated from Hailey High School in 1927 and returned to Owyhee County to her family.

While attending an Oreana dance, Maude caught the eye of a young cowboy name Jim Nettleton. The couple was married on Aug. 18, 1931, in Nampa. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Estacada, Ore., where they had a small farm for several years and they started their family.

Jim and Maude moved back to the Joyce family ranch on Sinker Creek with their two small children, Marilyn and Matt, and soon added sons, Tim and Nick. The Nettletons raised their family at the Box T Ranch in the Owyhee Mountains in the summer and in Oreana, where their children attended school in the winter.

As the Oreana School only went through eighth grade, the Nettletons later purchased a home in Nampa where their children attended St. Paul's and the Nampa High School.

Maude was a member of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Oreana and was an active member of the Altar Society for many years.

Maude's life began a new chapter when Jim was killed on March 28, 1970, in a truck accident on the Poison Creek grade. In time, she moved to Orofino to help her sister care for their mother. Maude lived in Orofino for several years, and made many friends there. In 1978, she moved back to the ranch in Oreana where she lived out the rest of her productive life, doing the thing she loved -- milking cows, raising chickens, collecting blue glass bottles and watching the grandchildren grow up.

Maude broke her hip in 1991, and it ended her years of spontaneity and fierce independence. She move in with her granddaughter for three years, and spoiled her great-grandchildren with her sourdough pancakes and stories of fun times she had enjoyed as a child, her family said.

In 1994 she joined the residents at Cedar Crest Retirement Center in Mountain Home, where she was an active member of their community for many years.

Maude was a unique individual with a kind heart and many talents, her family said. After her husband died, she spent many summers cooking in cow camp for her grandchildren, collecting rattlesnake rattles, and gathering petrified wood for projects. "She was an avid collector of simple things, and was generous to a fault when sharing her 'treasures' with others. Scrabble and Rummy were just two of the games she enjoyed teaching to her great-grandchildren.

"Maude will always be fondly remembered by the name her older grandchildren gave her, 'Old Mom,' and she signed all her cards and letter with the same over the years. Many friends from her high school years fondly remembered her by her nickname, "Jackie,' " her family said.

Maude is survived by: her daughter Marilyn Black of Bruneau, her son Matt and his wife, Rosemary Nettleton, of The Dalles, Ore., her son Tim and his wife, Charlene Nettleton, of Murphy, and her son Nick and his wife, Betty Ann Nettleton, of Glenns Ferry, 14 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, 13 great-great- grandchildren; her brother, Bruce Sothern of Minneapolis, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Maude was preceded in death by her husband, Jim, son-in-law Ace Black, two grandsons, sister, Margaret Crockett, and brothers Al Sothern and John Sothern.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be made in Maude's honor to Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic church in Oreana, c/o Ruth Collett, 24912 Collett Rd., Oreana, ID 83650. or the Owyhee County Historical Society, PO Box 67, Murphy, ID 83650.