Donnie Brubaker

Donnie Brubaker

Donnie Brubaker, born Jan. 11, 1923, at Ralston, Okla., passed away at age 88 on April 2, 2011, at a local care center in Mountain Home, surrounded by family and loved ones.

Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 13,2011, at the Christian and Baptist Church, 265 N. 4th East St., in Mountain Home, which will be followed by a luncheon. Cremation was under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel.

Donnie was born the youngest of the five children to John and Minnie Kester on a farm in the Big Bend Region of Oklahoma. Her father died when she was 11 and when she turned 13 the family started west.

They stopped in Lund, Nev., for a year. She graduated from eighth grade there; she played her fiddle for the graduation. Her uncle found work in Mountain Home and so the family moved to Idaho.

At the Brubaker family sawmill in Dry Buck in the Smith Prairie area, she met John Brubaker. They were married July 3, 1942, in Boise. From that union, five children were born. In 1962, they purchased a farm on the Snake River in Indian Cove.

Donnie loved to play the fiddle and guitar and sing old cowboy songs and hymns. She could hear a song once and be able to play and sing it perfectly.

John would second on the guitar or harmonica. She was a member of the "Old Time Fiddlers."

She joined the Christian and Baptist Church in Mountain Home and was a member of the church band.

She was an active member of the TOPS Club in Glenns Ferry, where she met lifetime friends. Other hobbies include crocheting, knitting, rock hunting, quilting, all of which she enjoyed teaching to her children and many others.

After John's retirement, they traveled extensively in the United States and Europe.

She is survived by her sister, Charlotte Mouser, of Sisters, Ore., and children Ann and Ron Lancaster, of Jerome, Ervin and Dolores Brubaker of Pocatello, Carl Brubaker and Lisa Volkmann, of Port Angeles, Wash., June and Mike Shenk of Indian Cove, and Lucy and Harold Glerum of Indian Cove.

Grandchildren include Christine and David Ash of Austin, Texas, Faye Wilson, of Kimberly, Martin and Lynn Brubaker of Lebanon, Ore., Jason and Cheli Brubaker of Hollywood, Calif., Aaron and Dawn Brubaker of Boise, Donnie Brubaker and Wendy Noteboom of Boise, Drew Shenk of Baton Rouge, La., and Trey Shenk of Lafayette, Ind. She has 13 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by John, who died in 2000 after 58 years of marriage, her grandson, Spence Johnson, two sisters and one brother.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Boise Rescue Mission, P.O. Box 1494, Boise, ID 83701, which Donnie supported.