Valley County, IDGenWeb Project | |
Annamary Beryl Seaman Godfrey, 93, formerly of Cascade, died on Oct. 13, 2011.
Services were held at the LDS Church Northview chapel in Boise on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, and interment followed at Cloverdale Cemetery.
She was born April 8, 1918, in Deer River, Minn., the second of four children of Morton and Kate Seaman. They moved to Idaho when Annamary was two months old to help found the logging camp at Cabarton near Cascade.
The box car at the logging camp where the family lived became the gathering place for the community to dance, play music and visit. Annamary learned from her mother and grandmother to play host to a house full of people, a talent that she enjoyed her entire life.
The family moved to Cascade in 1922. She had a life filled with skiing, barn dances, and music. She was an artist and reporter for the school newspaper.
During her senior year in high school she met a young man from Emmett, Adrian Godfrey, who was invited to the senior prom by her date. All it took was one waltz with Adrian to begin a lifetime romance. Annamary graduated as valedictorian of the Cascade High School class of 1936.
During high school she worked summers in lookouts as a fire spotter. After graduation she worked in the Forest Service district office in Cascade.
In 1938 Annamary moved to Emmett to work in the county land bank office. She and Adrian continued their romance and were married on Aug. 28, 1939. In 1940 they moved to Ogden, Utah.
The first of five daughters, Judy, was born that summer. Adrian worked in a drug store and the family saved to start a toy business.
They were joined by Adrian’s brothers and Annamary and her four sisters-in-law bonded for life. The family expanded with a second daughter, Gerri, in 1942.
Adrian was drafted to fight in World War II shortly after and Annamary and the girls moved to Cascade to live with her family while Adrian served in Europe.
While there, Annamary worked at the department store and her grandmother stayed home to watch the girls.
News about the war was hard to come by in Cascade. Newsreels before the Saturday matinee and weekly radiocasts from Chicago kept the family informed. Adrian returned safely in 1946 and they moved to Boise to start over.
Another daughter, Katie, arrived in 1948 and they remodeled a small house in Boise’s east end. Because of Annamary’s love for hosting that house became the meeting place for many friends and extended family which had followed Adrian and Annamary to Boise. Annamary’s pies and cinnamon rolls cooked on the wood stove were famous.
Adrian went to work for Westcraft Woodworking and they made a new circle of friends. A monthly card club begun then lasted over 30 years.
The Godfreys enjoyed dancing at the Elks and with a local dance club. Two more daughters, Margi and Elaine, were born.
In 1959 the family moved to Denver for a new job. Annamary joined in many choral and theater productions and helped all of her daughters participate in music and dance.
The family moved back to Boise and Annamary attended business school and she served in a calling as church librarian over the next two decades.
Annamary volunteered for many charities and she and Adrian served at the Boise LDS Temple after it was built.
Not surprisingly, the family home again became the place to meet. The extended family now included many grandchildren and nieces and nephews. You could always count on being asked to stay and eat when you visited.
In retirement Adrian and Annamary enjoyed the fruits of the many friendships and close family ties they had established. She finally got to fully enjoy her love of travel with trips to Europe, Hawaii, Mexico, Canada and many U.S. locations.
She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Adrian; her parents and siblings, her oldest daughter, Judy Erickson Ihli; a granddaughter, Annette Ahrens; and a great-granddaughter, Tatum Sykes Quist.
She is survived by four of her daughters, Gerri Kawczynski, Katie (and Gene) Watkins, Margi (and John) Farmer and Elaine (and Brett) Clegg; and 27 grandchildren, their spouses and numerous step-grandchildren, great grandchildren and nieces and nephews.
The anchor and hospitality she provided to so many will be sorely missed.
Donations in lieu of flowers are encouraged to the American Cancer Society or a charity of your choice.
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