Pearl LuRae Holladay Noble Obituary (1929

Pearl LuRae Holladay Noble anxiously returned home to her Heavenly Father on September 17, 2016. She was surrounded by her family who will forever treasure her life and the legacy of love she leaves behind. Pearl was born on May 29, 1929, in Nampa, the 12th child of 14 to David Earl and Martha Loretta Ellsworth Holladay. She grew up in Kuna and Nampa, except for a few years during WWII, when her parents moved to Vancouver, WA to work in the shipyards there. She even attended the schoolhouse in Kuna on Rattlesnake Hill, where Indian Creek Elementary now sits. Pearl married John Edgar Noble on May 16, 1949 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. John and Pearl raised their 8 children on the farm growing crops and milking cows. Pearl spent many years in church service with her favorite calling being a temple worker in the Boise LDS Temple. Her favorite activity was working on her family's genealogy. She spent a decade working on German records, despite not being able to speak German. Pearl had a strong testimony of the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ and was thrilled to support her sons and grandchildren on missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so they could share that message with others. Pearl's crowning glory and favorite blessing was her family. She loved to gather with her family. If there was a deck of Skip-bo cards or Scrabble board, she could be found playing with whomever would play with her. She remembered every birthday and attended every grandchild's baptism and graduation. Pearl was welcomed to the spirit world by her eldest son Robert (Bob) Noble; her mother and father; brothers: Parnell, Lamar, Joe, Vernal, and Jack; and sisters: Vidella, Lilly Hower, Verna Newby, Margie Armstrong, Donna Jean and a foster daughter Ruth Mabey. She is survived by her husband John Noble; Bob's wife Susan Noble; and her 7 other children with spouses; Janet (Dennis) Smith, Diann (Rod) Wilcox, Victor (Elaine), Sheri (Grant) Leavitt, Dan (Suzanne), Jack (Khammay), and Gail (Jerry) Stark; sisters Dixie Winston and Ruby Johnson and brother Glen; as well as 45 grandchildren and 92 great-grandchildren! Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, September 24, at the Kuna LDS Stake Center, 3305 W. Kuna Rd. in Kuna. Viewings will be held at the church on Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m. and again at the church on Saturday, from 9 to 10:15 a.m. prior to the services. Graveside dedication will be at the Kuna Cemetery. Indeed a viewing will be held on Thursday and services on Saturday as previously stated. Arrangements are under the direction of Zeyer Funeral Chapel, Nampa. 467-7300. Condolences may be expressed at zeyerfuneralchapel.com Janet We welcome you and although Mother's passing is bittersweet, we are cheered by the outpouring of love, generosity and support from family, friends and neighbors. We celebrate the life of Mother, one of America's Greatest Generation who lived through the Depression and World War II which preceded the prosperity we have known. Pearl LuRae Holladay Noble was born May 29, 1929. When she recited her birth date, she also included the fact that it was the year the stock market crashed. Her parents were David Earl and Martha Loretta Ellsworth Holladay. She was born in Kurtz Park in Nampa. Her father was a policeman and park tender. Shortly after birth, her mother became ill and was in Samaritan Hospital, across the street from the park. When it was time to nurse, her sisters took her over to the hospital so her mother could feed her. Sixty seven years ago, Mom and Dad were married May 16, 1949 in the Salt Lake Temple and then commenced to farm and raised a crop of 8 good kids. In those days sometimes it took a bit of ingenious to come up with the money to operate. At one time, they were riding in a pickup truck, with a faulty passenger door. Dad was driving, Bob sitting on the seat and I, who was almost a year old, was sitting on Mothers lap. As they crossed the rail road tracks in Nampa, the door popped open spilling us out onto the ground. She says that luckily I fell on top of her. She probably protected me. She was a little skinned up and her school sweater was torn. One day, when Bob and I were toddlers, we went out the back door to find a huge snake sunning himself next to the step. Mother killed the snake with a shovel. My Mother was a private person. She did a lot of genealogy and remarked that she felt more at ease among the dead. She served a mission in German extraction. Her skill returned to bless us, when two families on the Noble side were located in Germany. She gleaned the information from the microfilms for 5 years. If Mom was gone, Dad knew that he could find her at the Stake Center. Sometimes he might take her a hamburger or another treat. There were 4000 ancestors and relatives found. She could make work fun. She and I did corn topping clean-up. We would count the corn tassels and at the end of the round, the one who had pulled the most tassels, broke off the end of the last tassel and put it into her pocket. At the end of the day, the one with the most tassels was the winner. Someone asked me what the prize was. I said that the prize was, that I was the winner part of the time. Another time, we drove into the bottom of the field to top corn again. She turned off the car and we sat for a few seconds. Then she said that we needed Jolly Ranchers, so we drove to Kuna, 4 miles away and bought some of the penny candy. It was the most frivolous thing she had ever done and looking back, I loved her more for it. Recently, at a Noble Family Reunion, Mother was honored for being the one who often brought the Nobles together. Although there were fewer Nobles than our relatives, we knew those cousins as well as we knew her side of the family. Mother was the 11th of 14 children. She was preceded in death by a son Bob, her parents and 10 siblings. Surviving are my Dad, John Noble, Susan Noble, wife of Bob, Janet and Dennis Smith, Diann and Rod Wilcox, Victor and Elaine Noble, Sheri and Grant Leavitt, Dan and Suzanne Noble, Jack and Khammay Noble, Gail and Jerry Stark. She and Dad have 45 grandchildren, 92 great grandchildren. The combined number of missions and military in Mom and Dad's posterity is 52. Also surviving are 3 siblings, Dixie Winston, Ruby Johnson and Glen Holladay. Mother passed away on Saturday, September 17, 2016. We were at her bedside as she slipped over to the ones she had longed for, so long. Diann Our Mother wrote a fascinating personal history with 189 pages which my sisters and I found to be helpful in reminding us of some of the highlights of her life. Reading My mother was always quite lovely. She read to us some evenings from the children's friend and other fun stories as well as the book of Mormon. Her stories had a moral to them. To help me get reading practice she would give me a brand new reading book each time I read five books. I learned to love reading just to get a new book! Later she had reading charts for my brothers and sisters as well. Mom loved to read and she says in her history how she read church books that helped her gain a strong testimony of the gospel. Canning and gardening Mom loved to can and preserve fruits and vegetables. I remember coming home from school and seeing jars full of beautiful peaches on the table. And yes she always had us children help when we were home. She made sauerkraut, froze corn and pickled beets. We loved mom's pickles and would chomp on a huge dill pickle as often as we could. We wanted to eat them right away but she would remind us that they had to age in the bottle for a while to taste like a dill pickle and anything we canned could not be eaten until the old fruit on the shelf was eaten. Mom got joy out of the simplest things. She had a green thumb and loved growing plants, had numerous house plants and liked having a garden and especially flowers. She took cuttings from a rose bush and would place it in the ground with a cover and start her own rose bush. She liked to sew and made outfits for us girls. One year she made nightgowns for all of the granddaughter's. Working outside Mom helped in the fields and milking cows. She took us kids to the field, usually one of us in the playpen and the oldest children to play and checked on us each time she came back up the rows. Later Mom and Dad taught us how to hoe weeds in the beet and corn fields during the summer. Dad had to go to other parts of the farm but Mom was there helping us. Starting at the edge of a field we worked our way across it several times during the summer. Mom was fast and thorough. As she finished her row, she always helped us finish our rows so we all stayed together. She did this even when we dawdled or had a bad attitude but she expected us to do our part. We learned to help each other as well She had a calming influence and encouraged us. We sang songs while we worked. We took water in a large jug with ice in it. But the water usually turned warm while we were still working. Yes we complained. Mom would always say with enthusiasm, "At least it's wet". Mother kept all of the cattle records for our dairy farm which had every cows vital information recorded with a picture of every cow; this for several hundred head of cows. She took pictures of the calves as well, with one or two of us children holding the calf on a rope and a blackboard with the calf's information. These "calf pictures" have made for some interesting conversations. When gophers destroyed the ditch banks, mostly the boys trapped them. But when all of us were going to school Mom took over and(1968)one year trapped 300 gophers. Camping Every summer our family went on a fishing trip for a few days. We looked forward to this all year long. Mom put together a master list of all the equipment we needed and Dad took care of all of the fishing equipment . For us kids it was the best part of the year because we didn't have to work at home! And we had such fun! One summer we went to Yellow stone with 10 of us in our car and our bedding in a rack on the top. It was so much fun to see a bear lots of geysers. We had a wonderful time with all of our family together. Places Mom was great to take us to visit relatives and places to help us with our Beehive and scouting requirements. All of us kids and some of our friends would pile in the car and go sight see. We went to Initial Point, Kuna Cave and Kuna Pioneer Cemetery. On Memorial Day she took us to visit the graves of our ancestors and older cousins who had died. She always took pictures of us around the graves. She loved to see her boys wrestle and she went to our school events. Mom liked to go on walks with us girls. We sometimes walked around the whole mile or we walked south on South McDermott till it ended, then walked back. To make it more fun, we would walk to a telephone pole and then run to the next telephone pole. She sometimes met the younger children when the bus dropped them a mile north of our house. Helping others Mom and Dad were especially nice to people who were poor or had little education. We had a lot of hired hands and their families in these situations. They always gave them a chance and were willing to help them out and would share food and clothing with them. Church Service Mom said several times that she was shy and I couldn't figure how she could be because she was always so open and welcoming with people. She and Dad were the dance directors at church when they were first married and she served in primary, Sunday School, young women and In relief society. She served in the nursery on Sundays and at Relief Society during the day and especially liked it when one of her grandkids (Katie) was there. Genealogy Mom wanted to search out her family for years and after our Brother Dan was born she had a little bit more time. She found information about her family and started researching Dads lines as well, writing letters and placing ads. She was always so excited when letters arrived from a great aunt or someone she found that knew the family. She taught a Genealogy class at church, and later through the 4 generation program, she discovered that her family was related to Bishop McBride, and we were shirt tail cousins to several other families in our ward. She encouraged us when we were young to start a book of remembrance and a scrap book It was so special to have Mother come out and help me in Colorado when Brandon was born Later she was able to come to all of our children's baptisms, graduations and most of the weddings. We loved it! That meant a lot to me to have her there and Dad whenever he could make it. What I most want to say about my mother is that she made us home. She gathered us, and cared for us, taught us by example; she lifted us up. She was the bright spot in our lives. I don't know how she spread herself so thin to do all that she did for us. With dad so busy with farming he depended on Mother to make the difference for us. And she did it wonderfully. I'm so thankful for my Mother. I love her and will always miss her. But I'm so thankful for the legacy that she has left for all of us. She was the ward genealogy specialist and worked in the name extraction program. She especially enjoyed her experience as ordinance worker at the Boise Temple. Sheri MY MOTHER, Pearl LuRae Holladay Noble May 29, 1929 to September 17, 2016 Dad called Mom "Perkle". Some of Mom's things she liked to do when she ever found time was to crochet, which all of her girls young and old were recipients of her beautiful doilies. She liked to read books of self improvement, books about the gospel, the Book of Mormon and it's history and the other standard works and she also took 8 years of institute, starting with Old Testament and even when Janet moved to Utah and eventually I stopped attending she would go by herself. She didn't like the freeway, she had her own path to make it over to the McMillan building on the not so traveled roads, for 4 years on her own. She would always share what she was learning and shared her thoughts with us and she would have some good discussions with all her children. Mom and Dad liked to dance till her feet hurt so bad from arthritis. As a young girl, I loved the years of the Green and Gold Balls that were held, to watch my parents swirl and skip across the floor was a wonderful delight to me. They participated in a real big celebration, Idaho sesquicentennial dance festival, with dancers all over the field and traveled quite few times to perform at other places. Far away traveling didn't happen very often, but when it did they did it up good. Our parents went to Hawaii, Mexico a couple times and also a trip with her sisters there and Cancun with a bunch of us siblings and on two church history tours and to Texas and Louisiana to visit Gail. Speaking of traveling I was blessed to go on quite a few travels with Mom. Dad seemed to always be farming and my husband was always working, so I helped drive many times to visit as Mom attended baptisms and graduations of her 45 grandchildren and has tried to attend some of the baptisms of her great-grandchildren. Quite often there would be 2 graduations on the same night, so she got creative on catching their Seminary graduation instead, to catch both grandchildrens events. Mom and Dad anxiously supported and monetarily gave to help 19 of their families missionaries and at one time had 3 missionaries out at the same time. If the young man had a missionary fund account, they had some money left over when they got home, which in my sons case, he was able to get a pickup to drive to school. Five years ago Mom started home peritoneal dialysis which took a large part of time out of her busy schedule and made it harder for her to travel anymore, it is possible, but energies can be very taxed. I had the opportunity to be with her to take her to Dr. appointments every two weeks, which earlier might be a little shopping after and always eating out, which she insisted on paying, beings I drove her and quite often it was tacos, which she liked. When Mom would do her dialysis exchanges, which would take about 45 minutes to an hour, 5 times a day, 365 days a year she would read, work word puzzles, keep organization lists and study her scriptures. My cousin figured the time up, that she sat in her dialysis chair and it came to about 9000 hours; a big bite out of her time if she didn't use it wisely. In the last 2 years, it was hard for her to just stay awake when she sat there. Which was hard for Mom as dialysis changed her life so much that she felt frustrated to not be able to go on the way she had done before, making the last 5 years not a reflection of her earlier life. Mom has had some very low times in recent months of not feeling of value, because of her not being able to do all that she used to do. Three weeks ago Mom wanted to can some peaches. I told her there was no way I was going to drop on her some peaches, when she hadn't even been feeling strong enough to be cooking yet. She said, "But we are out of peaches." Grant and I had lots of peaches in our storage, but mine were not near as beautiful as Moms, though I told Grant I was going to bring some of them over to Mom and Dads. He thought that was great, but he got to thinking that it would sure make her feel good if she could help with canning some. So while I was gone taking Mom to the doctor. He got a hold of 2 bushel of peaches and was very glad to present them to me when I got back. I took them over and Gail came also and I told Mom when you are ready to sort the peaches, we are ready to can your peaches. She did very well that day sorting and then stuffing the jars. On the next batches, 3 days later and a week later, it was apparent that it was much harder for her. Mom has always been a hard worker. This might seem to our world today sexist, but Dad said, he felt like, "Mom was always happiest when she was pregnant or canning." I feel like Mother was blessed, to be able to keep a clear thinking mind, because of how she used her mind. Keeping family history lines and information that she would keep close to her heart and in her mind, she could tell you who begat who and details of relatives on both sides of hers and Dads family lines and where they came from and other information. Mom loved music and would sing while she worked and Dad if he was around would join in and us children also, the older generation songs that I love and made us all feel happy. Mom taught scouts and many others how to do genealogy and would help the scouts earn their genealogy merit badge. She always said that more scouts ought to achieve the genealogy merit badge, as it is a beautiful medallion. At the old farm house there was a patch of clover on the west side of the house and one northeast of the house and many times more then once, we'd end up sitting in that patch enjoying the sun and Mom would look for a four leaf clover and we would sing,"I'm looking over a four leaf clover, that I overlooked before....." Mom had a knack for finding them and she was also known to find a five and even a six leaf and she would press them in a book. Some of Mom's favorite hymns were, I Need Thee Every Hour, I Stand All Amazed, Oh My Father and and Secret Prayer to name a few. Some of Moms Achievements are Genealogy and extraction and she doesn't have boxes and boxes of pictures, they are displayed in books. The loose pictures she has were pictures later given to her and each child had a filled out baby book. She has written life story of 129 pages of #10 type that reflects hers and her siblings lives. I know my Mom had a testimony of our Savior and that he came and gave himself to be the sacrifice to fulfill justice that we may repent and be his for the Father and that we live our lives the best we can like the Savior and endure valiantly to the end. Mom was always like home base for us. When we came in from the bus, the first thing we would do is yell Mama, and she would answer from whatever corner or bedroom she was in and everything would be okay. Gail There is a song that mom and dad loved. One of them would start to sing it or I would start to sing it and it went like this. (I sing) "You belong to my heart, now and forever." And then we all joined in together. It was one of my favorite things to do with my mom. Mom taught us to be conscientious of current events. She took us to the state capital so that we could represent and help to keep the values that we held dear. She and dad taught us by example that the right to vote was something to not take lightly. She would gift us books on the constitution and our founding fathers. One time we went to the home of one of the authors. She had bought a case of his autographed books for all of us kids and her family. Mom's passion for learning and studying history both US, world and church, left us a legacy of learning and trying to be conscientious of those things that are important. I didn't go to kindergarten but I entered school as a top reader in my class because of the emphasis that she placed on reading and phonics in our home when we were little. Mom was a big supporter of her many grandchildren. She took trips to support and be there for every little and big event. If the kids had a fundraiser, she would buy half of the stock that they were trying to sell to make money. Mom loved the trick-or-treaters because they didn't get many in the country. She would reward them with her big homemade popcorn balls that we all got to participate in making together. When Christmas came she would make large paper bags full of big red and green ones. She really spoiled us with those. We did not have a lot with so many kids when we were young , but she could make socks and underwear wrapped in little Jello boxes seem pretty great. She loved giving at Christmas and she would often forget presents that she had hidden away and remember them days and months after Christmas. These were great surprises. As an adult living away, Christmas didn't begin until mom's package arrived. There was something magical about this. She didn't send us fancy expensive things, but it was filled with mom's special touches that made you feel so happy inside, Mom was fair and gave few spankings, but when I did get one it was for a good reason. Sometimes she would have us go out and pick out our own willow. I don't know how we would have known, which one was a good one. She stood me at her knee and explained to me what I was going to get my licking for. In one incident I had called my brother Dan, "Damn Dan." I must have thought I had a good reason for it but swearing was not appropriate and she explained that to me. Once I threw a rock and hit him in the head. I got my spanking. She explained to me why. She wasn't angry. She did not haul off and let her temper take control. It's like she secretly counted to ten before she reacted and knew that the lesson needed to be taught, so we didn't act like that again. She let us know that she loved us. Sheri said it correctly when she stated that mom was justice AND mercy all at the same time. At least that's how we recall it now. Back before everything you did to discipline your child was considered a form of abuse, mom put us in the shed together a time or two if we had done something wrong. I actually only remember this once but I think my siblings remember this more. I guess we were supposed to think about what we had done and decide we were never going to do it again. It forced us to have to address our wrong doing. Little did she know that being in the shed was a good thing. Growing up on the farm, you worked hard a LOT! Mom didn't realize that if we were in the shed we weren't working. She was doing us a favor. I'm pretty sure that she never caught on to the fact that that was really working out well for us. Mom had a soft spot for birds and baby animals. In her story she talked about the bird's comings and goings in the spring and summer. She noted in her story just how many hummingbirds she had each year. She told about a birdie that she raised after it was disserted by its mother. We lived in mom and dad's basement for a year. My kids brought a couple of kittens home from Sheri's house one day. One morning when she came out she found the birdie, the kittens and their dog Martha all drinking from the same water bowl. She got quite a kick out of this. (I think that I am telling all of mom's secrets.) We once had a farm dog that had killed a kitten from the cutest, motherless, batch of kittens we had raised. Mom was so upset by this dog, who had done this before, that she devised away to cure the dog of this senseless behavior. She tied the deceased kitten to the electric fence and then she tied the dog close enough to reach the dead kitten. When the dog reached for the cat, she got a sudden jolt of some of mother's justice. I can't remember whether the dog was cured, but I think mom felt better for trying. One day, mom got rather annoyed at the hired hands dog that kept frequenting our yard to pee on the bushes which would kill them. She decided to teach that dog a lesson and got dads shotgun. She didn't realize that the guys didn't use regular buckshot for a job like this and she shot that dog out cold...accept it was permanent. Her and dad had a dog earlier mentioned named Martha. Martha could be a real source of frustration as dad would allow her to get on the carpet and well, you know what that meant. She talked about the Martha the dogs aging health in her story. In referring to Martha she said, "The little beggar has lost some teeth due to her poor eating habits. They had to remove her ovaries as she had a cancer in her mammary glands, She's getting a little spendy in her old age and she never paid into her social security." Mom made cute little references like these throughout her story. Mom had made some of her funeral plans. We looked for them and couldn't find them, but everywhere we looked we found records and stories of genealogy and family history. Her legacy is a great love of her family, children and our loved ones who have passed and who are still yet to come. She was passionate about the gospel and the temple. She accepted a calling to serve at the temple for four hours in the morning and then she would continue her work by going to the family history center and serving an additional four hours there in the same day. We were blessed with 198 pages of her story which we were able to condense down to 129 pages. This was single spaced. These were full of one activity after another of good works. She wasn't a bragger; she just simply stated in this story what her activities at the time were. Mom was not the type that needed to be the center of attention. She didn't have to be the star of the show. She was often quiet, but if she had the chance she would chat with you and figure out how you were related and share the gospel with you. I remember her sharing the Book of Mormon with the migrant workers. She would tell them how they were descended from Lamanites and point out that this book was their story. She seemed so excited as she shared with them. When I was going to the temple it was like her joy overflowed at knowing what I was going to experience for the first time. She washed her temple clothes and carefully ironed them in front of me. It taught me that what I was about to do was something that you didn't take lightly and you do your best in doing it. If you met her in your travels and you didn't know her...you would like her. When the veil was lifted there had to be thousands there to meet her and to thank her for doing their work. I disliked being the youngest child. I wanted more brothers and sisters. Upon my begging, when I was in high school, she willingly took in foster kids. One of these was Ruth. I know that mom was glad to have an influence in Ruth's life. Momma, as moms often are, she was my biggest fan; our biggest fan. Her love for me was unconditional. I do not know if I will experience that again. Not all kids get that. It's the best when you do. Momma was truly a Pearl of Great Price in every way. There is no one that will ever be there for us on this earth in that manner. We are so glad to still have dad. We love him so much, but we will miss her so. With mom gone we already feel ourselves turning our sights toward him to help us fill some of that void. Dad, in spite of your age, you better be planning on sticking around for a while longer. It is such a joy to share these words and stories of our mother whom we love. Thank you for being a part of her life and for being here today. Service: Saturday, September 24, 2016 10:30 a.m. Kuna LDS Stake Center 3305 West Kuna Road Kuna, Idaho Visitation: THURSDAY, September 22, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. And SATURDAY, September 24, 2016 from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. Prior to the Services Kuna LDS Stake Center 3305 West Kuna Road Kuna, Idaho