Veva Ferguson

Veva Mae Ferguson passed away Saturday, June 17, 2017, at the Country Living Retirement Home in Mountain Home. Memorial services will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, 2017, at the First Congregational Church UCC with Reverend Drew Terry officiating. Cremation is under the care of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel, in Mountain Home.

Veva was born May 30, 1915, in Englewood, S.D., the daughter of Frederick H. Simons and Edith O. Ward Simons. Although the family lived on a homestead across the state line in Wyoming, she attended schools in Spearfish, S.D.

She came home only on school breaks. Her father would drive her to and from on the back of a buckboard, sometime buried in straw to keep warm.

She continued her school experience at what is now Black Hills University, earning a two-year degree in education. Veva’s first teaching position was at the Rocky Ford School in Wyoming not far from the homestead. She earned $50 a month. She arrived by horseback each morning with a younger brother to stoke a fire in the Ben Franklin.

She married Richard A. Ferguson Oct. 15, 1933, in the parsonage of the Spearfish First Congregational Church. Veva followed her husband on various moves between six different states.

She was a stay-at-home mom until the move to Illinois, at which time she became the food service director for two school districts in Wheaton, Ill., from which she retired in 1972. Of interest, Veva would use her personal recipes, expanding them to provide school lunches for 10,000 students per day.

After their retirement in 1972, Veva and Dick moved to Mountain Home, where they enjoyed traveling in their Airstream visiting family and friends.

Due to Dick’s failing health, their way in life became "Days of hope, days of prayers, and days of continued devotion." They lived each day to the fullest and as Veva would say, "Day by day, one day at a time."

Veva is survived by her three daughters, Sharon Darter of Lombard, Ill.; Grace and Maurice Townsend of Mountain Home; and Janet Chriske of Mountain Home; eight grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and her sister, Velna Martin of Rapid City, S.D.; plus many nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to thank Treasure Valley Hospice and the staff at Country Living Retirement Home for their loving and attentive care of their loved one. Donations may be given to the First Congregational Church of Mountain Home, Treasure Valley Hospice or Country Living Retirement Home.