Mar. 1, 1921 - Sep. 28, 2017
Date of Service: Oct. 7, 2017
HEYBURN – Rema finished her day’s work Sept. 28, 2017, at age 96, and can go on to finish her life’s work.
She was born March 1, 1921, in Ogden, Utah, to Carson Gilbert and Nellie Louisa Florence Kidd. She was in the Primary Children’s Hospital for 18 months when she was 4. The family lived in Acequia, then in Declo during the Depression. She married Delbert Samuel Oliver in 1939. They worked on the Oliver farm and rented a farm in View, Idaho. Their first child, Gary, was born Jan. 1, 1940. It was war time and Delbert got work in the shipyards near Vallejo, Calif. Daryl Sam was born Feb. 1, 1942, in Sonoma, Calif. They moved back to Idaho to farm again where the twin girls, Carol and Cheryl, were born May 8, 1947, in Twin Falls, Idaho.
A good bean crop enabled them to buy a ranch in Florence, Mont. Delbert became ill and they were forced to sell the ranch and move back to Idaho. He passed away Nov. 6, 1952, at age 37. Rema, now a widow at age 31, bought a corner grocery store on Overland Avenue in Burley with the money from the ranch. The store had a house attached which gave her a home and a business.
In September 1955, she married William Doran Combs. Her family grew with the addition of two stepchildren, Bill and Jerry. Doran built Combs Sheet Metal on the store property. In 1963, she leased out the store and they bought a house near the river in Heyburn. She lovingly tended the house in Heyburn for the next 50 years. She spent the last five years at Highland Estates Assisted Living.
She loved to cook, crochet, paint, and square dance. She traveled with Doran all over the country and made a special trip with her mother to England to meet with distant cousins. Another special trip was to Hawaii with her sisters. She loved her family.
Rema is survived by three children, Sam Oliver, Carol Lowder, and Cheryl (John) Collins; step-sons, Bill (Kay) Combs and Jerry Combs; siblings, Jay (Dorothy) Kidd, Joan (Fred) Hawker, and Gwen (Eldon) Searle; 14 grandchildren; 37 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; one son, Gary; husbands, Delbert and Doran; son-in-law, Dean Lowder; daughter-in-law, Donna Oliver; step-daughter-in-law, Maxine Combs; and sisters, Lydia Woodbury, Annah Kidd, Ruth Matthews, June McLean, Nila Schrenk, Merla (Fries) Stone, and Bonnie Richins.
The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Rasmussen Funeral Home, 1350 E. 16th St., in Burley, where friends and family may call from 1 until 1:45 p.m. Saturday, prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will be in Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley.
