Elaine Kite Crosley

Elaine Kite Crosley

Elaine Kite Crosley, 91 of Mountain Home, passed away on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at a local care center. Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 11:00am at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel and burial will follow at Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain Home.

Elaine was born Tuesday, November 13, 1917 in Rigby, Idaho, to Charles A. and Charlotte M. Sermon Kite. At the age of 8, they moved to Nampa, where she attended school, later moving to Smith's Prairie where she attended school through the eighth grade. The summers were spent herding turkeys, a lonely job, she disliked.

Fall of 1932, she moved to Grand View and resided with her aunt and uncle McMurtrey and attended high school. During high school she resided with various families and worked for room and board. It was here she met Ralph Crosley and was courted by him through her high school years.

Elaine and Ralph were married on June 16, 1936 in Boise. They moved to Sheep Creek where Ralph worked for Bruneau Sheep Co. and together they had two children, a daughter Barbara (Bobbie) and a son Dennis. In the spring of 1941, they moved to Anderson Ranch Dam where Ralph was employed for about a year and a half. Their home here was a tent house which Ralph built. In the winter of 1942-43 they moved to Mtn Home for a brief period then to Grand View where Ralph again worked for the Bruneau Sheep Co and Grand View Farms until their retirement in 1974. While they were in Grand View two more children were born to them, a son Daryl and a daughter Dorothy.

Elaine was a wonderful cook and spent many summers cooking for hay crews. She was an original member of the Chattin Chums Pinochle Club

Elaine and Ralph liked to travel and visit many parks in the west and traveled to Alaska and Mexico. After becoming widows, Elaine and her friend Jeanette took a "Fall Leaves Bus Tour" along the East Coast.

Elaine is survived by her children: her daughter Barbara and her husband David Lahtinen of Bruneau; her son Dennis and his wife Connie Crosley of Nampa; her daughter Dorothy and her husband Ted Ogden of Gooding; nine grandchildren, Barbie Schmitz, Beverly White, Dennis Lahtinen, Curtis Lahtinen, Brenda Huston, Debbie Talburt, Dennis Crosley, Jr., Lisa Parker, Heather Childers; numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, and two brothers, Rex Kite of Mtn Home, and Robert and his wife Hazel Kite of Emmett. She was preceded in death by both her parents, her husband Ralph in 1976, her son Daryl in 1987 and her brother Vincent Kite.