Margaret Tindall

Margaret (Binggeli) Tindall, 93 of Grasmere, Idaho, passed away on Saturday, July 4, 2015, in a Mountain Home Assisted Living Facility. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 11 a.m. at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel, in Mountain Home, Idaho. Inurnment will follow at the Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain Home.

Margaret was born Feb. 20, 1922, in Albligan, Switzerland. On Jan. 9, 1930, she along with her parents, a younger brother Ernest and sister Mary, immigrated to the United States aboard the ship Muenchen. The family entered the United States through Ellis Island, N.Y.

They travelled across the country and eventually joined an aunt and uncle in El Centro, Calif., where they farmed and milked cows. Margaret was naturalized as a citizen of the United States of America several years later. She was honored to be an American but was always proud of her Swiss heritage.

In 1942, she met and married an Idaho cowboy, William "Bill" Tindall, who was doing his part for the war effort by working for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego. Greta (Betty) was born in 1945 and Gene in 1947 while Margaret and Bill made their home in La Mesa, Calif.

When the war was over, they moved to Idaho to the Tindall family ranch at Grasmere. Two more children, David in 1951 and Kenneth in 1953, completed the family.

For the next 58 years, Margaret worked a long side Bill in the ranching operation, cooking for the haying and cowboy crews and the many visitors that happened to arrive at mealtime. Ranch life, with no electricity, was hard for Margaret, but she took joy in raising chickens, tending to her small flock of sheep and in feeding the "beanie" calves. Her calves were often some of the fattest on the ranch.

Margaret loved her family, caring for the animals, and the ranching lifestyle in Grasmere. After Bill's passing in 2009, Margaret remained on the ranch until health issues prompted her to move to the Cottages in Mountain Home in 2012.

There, she received the care she needed and enjoyed the friendship of the staff and the other residents. She was able to exchange daily phone calls with her sister Mary in California which she anxiously waited for every afternoon.

Margaret is survived by her sister, Mary Duke of California; her sister-in-law, Mary Binggeli of California; her children Greta (Betty) Tindall of Norfolk, Va.; Gene (Mary), David, and Kenneth Tindall all of Bruneau; 12 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Ernest and Marie Binggeli; her husband, William (Bill) Tindall; her brother, Ernest Binggeli; and a daughter-in-law, Celia Tindall.

Margaret was proud of her Swiss heritage, her Swiss music and her Saint Bernard dogs. She will be remembered for her keen memory of everyone's birthdays and events and for always baking her Swiss cookies at Christmas time for her family.

The family requests memorials to Ellis Island: P.O. Box Ellis, New York, N.Y. 10163, in Margaret's memory or to a charity of your choice.